I decide my future because I decide what I do now. No other person can decide my fate. But I can. I can, because I control my mind.
Mental toughness is a term that is used to describe the ability to handle stress, cope with pressure, push through adversity, and quickly come back from failures
Mental toughness fortifies a man’s perseverance to the extent that he no longer sees obstacles as a reason to terminate his effort to achieve a goal. Quite the opposite. Mental toughness cultivates the feeling that obstacles are an indication that he is pursuing a worthy goal which fuels his desire to overcome the obstacle.
If you just consider these positive attributes alone it’s easy to see that mental toughness is a trait that can help us all in just about every aspect of life.
Why would a man not work to build his mental toughness?
Why would a man ignore such a powerful tool?
The online self-betterment universe is teeming with people trying to learn new ways to improve their station in life. As we obsess with finding quicker and easier ways to get better at the whole living thing there is a fundamental core at the center of all self-improvement strategies and that’s mental toughness.
Whatever change a man wants to make he is going to need mental toughness to overcome his old bad habits and forge new, better habits. There is no denying this truth. Any new and improved method is going to require mental toughness to implement.
So why not skip all the fancy talk and simply work on becoming mentally tougher?
Mental toughness is a state of mind – you could call it ‘character in action.’ -Vince Lombardi
A big reason is that we are distracted by the possibility that there may be a shortcut, an easier way of getting there, something less daunting than working on mental toughness.
After all, it sounds hard. Mental toughness sounds a lot harder than mindfulness.
Building mental toughness is indeed hard. It’s a lot harder than all of the self-betterment methods out there.
I always say that mental toughness is a superpower because it is so difficult to build and even harder to keep. Developing and maintaining mental toughness is very difficult but therein lies the power.
Men develop their mental toughness through the struggle to become mentally tougher. It is the struggle itself that strengthens them.
Similar to lifting heavy weights to build muscle mass, overpowering mental weakness builds mental toughness.
The process is repetitive and requires persistence.
You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength. -Marcus Aurelius
It does indeed require a bit of mental toughness to get started but from there mental toughness builds as we test ourselves over and over.
The more we challenge our ability to resist weakness and bad habits the more we strengthen our mental toughness.
Forcing yourself to do something you really don’t want to do builds mental toughness.
You don’t need me to tell you the things you don’t want to do….you know them all too well.
Those things, the things you dread are the things you need to pursue and overcome the most.
I hope you can also see why I suggest making mental toughness your superpower. Each and every squared away man I have ever met is mentally tough. Their success, positive attitude, and poise come from their mental toughness. It’s their superpower.
You will still be able to dabble in some fancier modern self-betterment strategies to dial in certain things that you might want to focus on but doing so armed with your new level of mental toughness will make your efforts far more efficient.
In future posts I will share some of my personal efforts to strengthen my mental toughness……it’s a daily process that never ends.
Onward!
Photo by Marc Rafanell López on Unsplash
