Many of us wonder what catapults professional athletes and Navy SEALS into a league of their own. The answer: mental toughness.
It’s easy to be enthusiastic when things are going well, but holding steady and staying positive in times of competition, crisis and adversity is a trained mindset. The good news is that it’s not one reserved solely for the elite.
“It is what it is. But it will be what you make it” – Pat Summitt
We are all capable of conditioning the mind. Cultivating mental resilience and having a positively anchored attitude gives us an incredible advantage in life.
Here are my tips for developing a bulletproof mind.
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CHALLENGES
Acknowledgment is the first step to overcoming any challenge. To bounce back from the unexpected, we have to keep moving forward. Remind yourself to: “Acknowledge; Accept; Adapt; Act”.
Take accountability when things go wrong and accept that there are potentially better ways to achieve your goals. Remove ego and pride from the equation and ask for help when you need it. Accept constructive criticism and brainstorm solutions. Keep perspective when acknowledging your challenges and remind yourself: “this is tough, but not tougher than I am”.
FIND YOUR PURPOSE
Your purpose keeps you focused and lends passion and clarity to life direction– particularly in times of crisis. Making decisions that serve your purpose becomes easier. Counterproductive choices that limit your growth fall away. Putting ideas and intention into practice allows you to live with purpose.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
DECONSTRUCT THINGS
Mental toughness begins with not being intimidated by the challenge ahead of you. It’s easy to get lost or become overwhelmed by the big picture, so break it down into manageable targets. Approach it one step at a time and concentrate on the next minute, hour or day (whatever timeline fits your situation). While it’s important to stand back and measure your progress to see how you’re tracking, don’t stare so long that you become disheartened. Focusing on what you can do right here and now – at this moment – is what will help you to progress to the next target. The rest will take care of itself.
REFRAME NEGATIVE EVENTS
Work towards becoming a rapid ‘reframer’. Many things are out of our control, but how we interpret and react to them is very much within it. Whether they result from pain or discomfort, negative events present us with the most opportunity to grow.
Ask yourself: What is this teaching me? Who am I going to be when I emerge from this?
Be patient and wait it out. Everything ends – good or bad; it’s all temporary. Whilst what you did yesterday may have brought you success today, staying the same doesn’t guarantee success tomorrow. Be flexible, adaptable and open to learning. Reframe negative events to extract the most from every opportunity and experience.
RECHARGE AND RECOVER
Balance is important. You cannot be “on” 24/7 and continue to churn out incredible results. You will fatigue; it’s only natural. Mistakes are inevitable, particularly if you’re pushing the boundaries. Use mistakes as constructive ‘data’ to feed off as you move forward and not as an indication of self-worth.
When you’re “off”, be off and take care of yourself. Be aware of decision fatigue and swapping one form of mental stimulation (responding to email, scrolling through social media etc.). Consider how you can reduce the mental stimulus to benefit from your “downtime” truly. Ensure you’re getting enough sleep, fuel up with healthy food, have fun and practice self-care rituals. Take your “off” time seriously to recharge and recover so that you can function at your best when you need to.
POSITIVE SELF-TALK
Long story short: it works. Be your biggest supporter and hype yourself up. Keep in mind that positive self-talk can look a little different to everyone. It can be affirmations of particular qualities, cue words to manage specific scenarios or performance-related reminders. Our thoughts become beliefs, which become actions, which become habits. However you chose to approach positive self-talk, come at it from a place of compassion and support. You are confident, in control and utterly unstoppable. Don’t you forget!
VISUALISATION
The mind can have a difficult time distinguishing between reality and imagination. In vivid detail, visualising scenarios stimulate the same neural networks and respective physiological triggers that occur when experiencing something in reality (changes in blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, etc.). Using visualisation to prepare for high-pressure situations can be highly effective.
Time spent conditioning and preparing the mind allows us to develop coping strategies and better responses to anxieties when experiencing the moment in real-time.
Believing you have already achieved something has a significant impact on the mind. Visualise your success in explicit detail – engage all of the senses to make it as accurate as possible. Repeat the scenario – make it automatic to know precisely what to do to achieve your desired outcome. Keep it positive – envision yourself in a state of effortless success.
MICRO GOALS
Our micro-goals ensure that we’re in a position to realise our greater ambitions. They act as stepping stones between where we are right now and where we want to be. They are targeted, measurable and short-term. These goals can be broken down into a 24-hour cycle or a minute-by-minute play of a scenario. Use whatever works for you to achieve your goal. Get in a rhythm, build momentum, tick them off. Success feeds success. Think smaller. Stop waiting to celebrate until you hit your dream goal; start celebrating the micro-goals that play a significant part in moving you closer to your main goal.
FIND YOUR TRIBE
It’s a misconception that resilience and mental toughness is solely the strength of the individual. Even the most resilient people reach out and ask for help because they understand the benefit of sharing the load. Surrounding yourself with people who share similar vision and values to you, and establishing solid support networks, is a fundamental aspect of your overall health and happiness. The tribe won’t do the work for you, but they’ll encourage and uplift you to remind you that you can. A shared experience felt within team sports. If you’re in a team that supports you, shares the same goals, aspirations and dedication to reach the team’s version of success, you will inevitably rise with them.
We all experience setbacks, disappointments and occasionally, defeats. I have had many defeats on the football field, and in life, the goal is to position yourself so that you don’t continually oscillate between the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Build mental stamina, a resilience so sturdy that what once felt like a magnitude eight earthquake now registers as a slight vibration.
Life guarantees that the Earth will still shake, and the ground beneath you will tremble, but your resolve will not rattle.
Whilst discomfort might be the lifeblood of toughness; it’s a positive attitude and resilience that underpins success. To keep moving forward, we need to continually surrender who we are to become who the next moment calls us to be.
Bulletproof your mind and become unstoppable!
Coach Michael.
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