CSChristoffel SneijdersThree brains: head, heart and gut for decisions you keep deferring

How To Achieve Success: Why Effort And Self-Discipline Are Key To Happiness | Personal Growth

14 Sept 2016 · 3 min

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3:06

In this personal‑growth monologue, Christoffel Sneijders expands on his earlier formula that achievement equals skill multiplied by effort. He first outlines the three dimensions of skill: speed of learning, the rate at which one learns, and how effectively extra time is used. He then reviews research on teenage boys and girls (ages 12‑18) that shows girls achieve higher academic marks despite equal measured intelligence, attributing the gap to greater self‑discipline and grit among girls during puberty. Sneijders equates effort with self‑discipline and grit, emphasizing that these traits determine whether one follows through on tasks like homework. He proposes a personal measurement framework: assess one’s skill dimensions, then evaluate self‑discipline and grit by asking concrete reflective questions (e.g., “Do I sit at my desk and work steadily or cherry‑pick tasks?”). By gaining awareness of both skill and effort, viewers can improve their achievement, happiness, and overall flourishing. The talk ends with an invitation to apply the self‑assessment and a friendly farewell.

Chapters

Hey, good to see you again. Let's talk about effort. Last time we spoke about achievement is skill multiplied by effort. We spoke about skill. There are three things: speed of learning, slowness. What do we use extra time? What's the rate of learning? How much do you learn? And now let's talk about effort. They did a lot of research in teens with boys and girls, say between. 12 and 18 years old, and what is their intelligence and what is their achievement. And they became aware that girls are more successful in their marks than boys. So they started to do IQ tests and other kinds of tests. Are girls really smarter than boys? And they became aware that's not the case. We have the same intelligence. Maybe we're different wired a little bit. We perceive things differently. But you have the same intelligence somewhere. So then I came aware, hey, but then how come that girls have a better achievement, higher marks? And I came aware that boys in the age between— in the puberty have a lot of distractions in their mind. And you can think about all the distractions boys have when they have their puberty. And girls are much more self-disciplined in that age. So where boys say, okay, homework, let's do something else, girls said, let's do our homework. And they started to really do their homework. And based on that self-discipline, they had much more achievement. So when they say about effort, that's almost same as self-discipline. The other part they also describe in effort is the grit. How really, how gritty are you when you want to achieve something? And that's the second part. And also became aware that girls in that age are much more gritty than boys. So for us, it's somewhere the case, and you can now, knowing everything, you can do your own measurement. Hey, when I look at my own achievements in life, how's my skill? What is my speed of learning? What do I do when I learn something with the extra time I still have? Wat is mijn rate of learning? Hoeveel heb ik daarover geleerd? Als je dat hebt gedaan en je hebt een bewustzijn over het, dan kijk naar je inspanning. Hoe is je zelfdiscipline? Hoe is je grittigheid? Ben je er echt voor bereid om het te doen? En neem je je tijd en zit je achter je bureau en leer het en zie het en observeer het? Of ben je gewoon een beetje cherry picking en dan weg? Looking at that, make your own measurement, do your own check, and see how it can work for you. How you can really have a better achievement in happiness, in success, in a flourishing life. See you next time. Ciao. Thank you.