How To Become Mentally Strong: Advice From The World’s Best
A year ago, I stumbled on an article on how to be mentally strong that got a ton of comments and shares. It confused me. Why do all these people care about this?
I didn’t care about being mentally tough. I wanted money and happiness. And I didn’t see how mental toughness would help me with that unless I wanted to change my goals to becoming a Navy SEAL. But everything’s changed since then.
Mental toughness is incredibly important to your peak performance.
Today, I’m going to share with you everything you need to know on a critical skill you may be overlooking. I’ll share with you why mental toughness matters and how to improve it. And if you’re wondering why you should trust me, it’s because all my advice comes from people you can trust: the world’s top performers.
What is Mental Toughness?
Mental toughness is the strength of mind to keep pushing through when your body and other psychological factors tells you to quit.
The scientific definition is:
“Mental toughness is defined as an unshakeable perseverance and conviction towards some goal despite pressure or adversity.”
Based on a study of ten international performers, classified mental toughness as something that can be measured by the following dimensions:
* Focus
* Self-belief
* Pain and Hardships
* Desire and Motivation
* Dealing with Pressure and Anxiety
Here are some examples of mental toughness in action:
When you are broke and homeless, it feels like there is no hope, especially when you have tried hard for years to improve your situation and failed. This was Sylvester Stallone’s situation before he made it as an actor. There was significant psychological pressure telling him to give up, but he didn’t.
Another example would be when you’re competing at the Olympics. A slight difference of who can push further a bit further can decide who takes the Gold or Silver medal. At a crucial point like this, you have physical factors (your body screaming at you to quit) and mental factors (screaming crowds distracting you and your body screaming at you through your nerves) that are competing against your mental strength.
Or let’s say your parents and siblings all died from illnesses or unexpected accidents. You need to be strong to stay positive and keep moving on.
Sylvester Stallone defines it the best. Here’s a clip from the film “Rocky Balboa:
This video made an impression on my beyond anything else. I almost cried after seeing it for the first time. This was because I was really in a bad place at the time in almost every area of my life, and it was like he was speaking right to me.
It explains mental toughness fairly well and gives a great tip on improving it. It’s not about how great you are, it’s about how many times you can get back up after life beats you down.
Why Mental Toughness Matters
We all know that muscles are built on the last couple reps when it’s painful and you want to quit. But most people quit far sooner than they want to because they can’t withstand the pain. As you will see later on, experiments have proven that we can perform beyond when our bodies tell us we’re exhausted.
Imagine being able to push a little bit farther each time when you’re at the gym and on the last rep. Imagine being able to work harder than your coworkers and get more done. Imagine having that extra push in that make-or-break moment that could define your future and crown you as a champion.
What would that mean to you? How much more money would you make? How much longer would you live? How much better would you look?
Developing mental toughness will lead to the pr...