Did you know that mental toughness is a key psychological variable that is related to perseverance and success in performance domains? It is also something that researchers are constantly studying because it can be elusive conceptually, although it’s easy enough to notice when watching someone’s behavior.
For example, if you see an individual who continues to persevere and achieve their goals despite being in situations where most people would be expected to fail and give up, this individual would be demonstrating mental resilience behavior.
Do you wish to develop this psychological trait? Despite popular belief, it is possible to build mental resilience. Keep reading to find out some techniques to build mental strength.
Face Your Fears Head-on
The first thing you need to do to build mental strength is to start facing your fears head-on. Life isn’t ever going to be easy and it’s important to realize that fact early on. Too many of us were coddled when we were children and weren’t allowed to face many difficult situations.
This results in adults who are afraid to face anything that makes them feel fearful or frightened. Start facing your fears head-on, and you will be well on your way to building mental resilience.
Develop Healthy Self-Talk
Another important skill to build here is the power of positive self-talk. If you end up berating yourself and calling yourself degrading names every time you fail, you will learn soon enough not to try anything new.
But if you have healthy self-talk where you talk to yourself like you would a friend who is in trouble, you will encourage yourself to try new things, even when they are petrifying or new.
Allow Yourself to Make Mistakes
Making mistakes is a normal part of growing and becoming an adult. It’s an even more important part of building mental toughness. You can’t become mentally tough if you never try anything new or if you are always running away from situations where you might end up making mistakes.
You need to understand that making mistakes is the way a baby learns all of their basic skills, like walking, eating, putting on their clothes, speaking, and more. This is how human beings grow. You can’t avoid making mistakes and still expect to build mental resilience.
Also, remember that you will feel extremely uncomfortable when learning a new skill. Wallow in that discomfort. Immerse yourself into it.
It’s all good. It’s supposed to be this way. This is how you build mental toughness, not by running away every time you feel a smidgeon of discomfort.
Build Self-Responsibility
No one else can learn these mental toughness lessons for you. Not your parents, not your partner, and not your children. You are going to have to do this all on your own.
But guess what? Once you pass the lessons of developing mental resilience, you are going to be so much further ahead.
That’s why you need to become self-responsible. Take responsibility for everything that happens to you, and don’t shove off blame or responsibility to others, no matter what.
Get a Mentor or Coach to Build Mental Resilience
This is a big one for those people who are looking to do something great in this world. Every Olympic athlete or celebrity sports personality has a coach, who helps them persevere even when the going gets tough.
A lot of us will give up in a second if given the chance. No wonder this world is filled with people who are going nowhere, wasting their lives away.
With a mentor or mental toughness coach by your side, you are more likely to keep pushing yourself beyond your perceived limits. That’s how you are going to end up accomplishing great things. In addition, a mental toughness coach will come up with new tricks and techniques every week to help you build mental strength.
Feel Gratitude in Every Moment of Every Day
Yes, you wish to improve yourself and get better every single day. But, you don’t want to do it on a background of bitterness, resentment, and hate.
Every moment that you are alive, healthy, happy, and well, is a moment for gratitude. This doesn’t mean that you are suddenly becoming religious or all about God (you can if you wish, but it’s not a must with gratitude).
A lot of research has been done on proving how important this personality characteristic is for people to develop. The more you believe that you are lucky and have gratitude for all that you have, the more you are likely to push yourself to achieve more.
If you can’t feel gratitude for all that you have and are already, then why would you even bother to get or do more?
Learn How to Regulate Your Emotions
Do you tend to throw a temper tantrum (even as an adult) whenever things don’t go your way? Do you start becoming emotional, angry, or aggressive when you are trying something new, but it’s uncomfortable or hard?
Emotional regulation is an important skill for you to learn on this path to building mental strength. If you expend all your energy on becoming emotional every time you have a hard day, then you won’t have very much energy left over for anything else.
Yes, life is tough and miserable and all that. But with emotional regulation, you will be able to deal with everything that the world throws at you with temperance and calm. This doesn’t mean that you become an emotionless robot, but that you don’t burst out into tears at the mere whiff of a mistake.
Are You Ready to Start Getting Mentally Strong?
Life isn’t a series of rainbows and lollipops. It’s a hard grind at times and if you aren’t mentally strong, you are going to find it a very hard run indeed.
With mental resilience at hand, you will feel more capable of handling whatever the universe lobs at you, with gratitude and panache.
Keep browsing through related articles on our website and keep learning about other self-improvement tricks.
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
