10 Ways to Build Your Mental Strength Acting tough is about surviving while being strong is about thriving. ...
10 Ways to Build Your Mental Strength
Acting tough is about surviving while being strong is about thriving.
Related: 15 Qualities of Mentally Tough People
1. Establish goals.
The human brain is naturally predisposed to reach for
and achieve goals. And not just one big goal, such as I want to lose 50
pounds. Also set more manageable short-term goals such as I want to work
for 30 minutes without checking my phone or I want to reply to all of
my emails by noon today.
With each goal you achieve, you’ll gain more confidence
in your ability to succeed. You’ll also learn to recognize when your
goals are unrealistically ambitious and when they’re not challenging
enough.
2. Set yourself up for success.
Becoming mentally strong doesn’t mean you have to
subject yourself to temptations every day. Make your life a little
easier by modifying the environment.
If you want to work out in the morning, leave your shoes next to the bed at night and sleep in your gym clothes. If you want to eat healthier,
remove the junk food from your pantry. When you set yourself up for
success, you won’t exhaust your mental energy trying to resist the urge
to sleep in or to dig into a bag of potato chips.
3. Tolerate discomfort for a greater purpose.
Discomfort can lead people to look for unhealthy
shortcuts. Rather than deal with a problem, they reach for something
that provides immediate emotional relief—drinking a glass of wine or
binge-watching their favorite show, for example. But those short-term
solutions can often create bigger long-term problems.
Practice tolerating discomfort by reminding yourself of the bigger picture. Push yourself to work on your budget
even though it causes you to feel anxious; run on the treadmill when
you feel tired—don’t escape the discomfort. The more you tolerate
discomfort, the more confidence you’ll have in your ability to do
difficult things.
4. Reframe your negative thoughts.
Strive to develop a realistic yet optimistic inner
monologue. Reframe catastrophic thoughts, such as This will never work
with If I work hard, I’ll improve my chances of success.
You can’t eliminate all of your negative thoughts. Everyone has rough patches and bad days. But by replacing those overly pessimistic thoughts with more realistic expectations, you can stay on course and equip yourself to manage the bad days.
5. Balance your emotions with logic.
You make the best decisions
when your emotions and logic are in sync. If all your decisions were
emotional, you wouldn’t save for retirement because you’d be too busy
spending your money on what makes you happy right now. But if all of
your decisions were logical, you’d live a boring life devoid of
pleasure, leisure and love.
Whether you’re buying a house or thinking of a career
shift, consider the balance between your emotions and logic. If you’re
overly excited or especially anxious, write down a list of the pros and
cons of moving forward with the decision. Reviewing that list will boost
the logical part of your brain and help balance out your emotions.
6. Strive to fulfill your purpose.
It’s hard to stay the course unless you know your overall purpose. Why do you want to earn more money or hone your craft?
Write out a clear and concise mission statement
about what you want to accomplish in life. When you’re struggling to
take the next step, remind yourself why it’s important to keep going.
Focus on your daily objectives, but make sure those steps you’re taking
will get you to a larger goal in the long run.
7. Look for explanations, not excuses.
When you don’t perform as well as expected, examine the
reasons why. Look for an explanation to help you do better next time,
but don’t make excuses for your behavior.
Take full responsibility for any shortcomings. Don’t blame others
or the circumstances for your missteps. Acknowledge and face your
mistakes so you can learn from them and avoid repeating them in the
future.
8. Do one hard thing every day.
You won’t improve by accident. Purposely challenge
yourself. Of course, what’s challenging to you might not be to someone
else, so you need to analyze where your comfortable boundaries are.
Then pick something slightly outside those boundaries
and take one small step every day. That could mean speaking up for
yourself when it’s uncomfortable or enrolling in a class you don’t feel
qualified for. Push yourself to become a little better today than you
were yesterday.
9. Use the 10-minute rule.
Mental strength won’t magically make you feel motivated all of the time. But it can help you be productive, even when you don’t feel like it.
When you’re tempted to put off something, use the
10-minute rule. When you eye the couch at the time you planned to go for
a run, tell yourself to get moving for just 10 minutes. If your mind is
still fighting your body after 10 minutes, give yourself permission to quit.
Getting started is often the hardest part. Once you take
the first step, you’ll realize it’s not nearly as bad as you predicted,
and your other skills can help keep you going.
10. Prove yourself wrong.
The next time you think you can’t do something, prove
yourself wrong. Commit to doing one more pushup at the gym or closing
one more sale this month.
Your mind will want to quit long before your body needs
to give up. Prove to yourself that you’re more capable than you give
yourself credit for, and over time, your brain will stop underestimating your potential.
This article originally appeared in the April 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine.