3 Critical Traits That Makes Mentally Tough People Winners.

If there is one thing I know we all crave for, it is to be able to achieve both our long and short term goals, and ultimately, to always succeed.

But when pursuing the factor(s) that birth success, no matter the endeavor, we usually look in the wrong places. The place of intelligence to achievement is well established in the academic field, and so also is the place of strength in the sport domain; however, studies are showing that mental toughness is a rare but equally important(if not more important) success factor.

To begin with, being mentally tough is the bedrock of other success qualities. It is the adrenaline that sustains in the long run, whether in the gaining of knowledge —building intelligence as a result, or in the development physical strength.

Mentally tough people are able to bounce back after successive failures; they have guts to keep going regardless of mounting odds, and they don’t let negative feedbacks hold them back. They press on, unto succeeding.

Their nature has a lot to teach us about constant movement and success attainment.

They Are About Problem Solving:

Mentally strong people are not overwhelmed by problems, regardless of magnitude. They don’t go about whining about how unfair life is, instead, they understand that even the best opportunities in life usually comes in the form of problems that need solving.

So where others see obstacles, this category of people see opportunities. When faced with dead ends, they improvise and find a way to fly.

This ability to solve problems propel them unto levels higher than the average individual. They don’t just take on the challenges that confronts them, they equally take on those that confronts the society, tackling them in a super-human-like like manner.

In an interview at L.A. Summit 2017, Jeff Bezos, speaking with his brother Mark (a TED speaker himself), attributed his massive successes —not to his educational degrees — but his ability to solve problems, a quality they said characterized their grandpa's personality.

To the mentally tough every challenge is a game to be won, and not to be dreaded. A lot of thing changes when we come to view life's challenges as opportunities to step higher, to crack the nuts so as to get to the edible inside. Mentally tough people know this, and they usually get excited about challenges.

They Are Not Deterred By Negative Feedbacks.

In his research based study on mental toughness, Dr. Peter Clough (Hons). MA. Ph.D. Chartered Psychologist, examined the impact of feedback on mentally tough people.

Participants in the study were grouped into two: the negative feedback group, and the positive feedback group; and feedbacks weren't based on the individual performances of participants in the shooting task that comprised the study.

The result showed that the performance level of mentally tough people was not adversely affected by negative feedback. Regardless of negative feedbacks, this category of individuals kept putting in their best, and as a result were able to churn out better results.

They View Failure Differently:

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk developed a very simple way of not letting the possibility of failure to stop him. He doesn’t avoid failure or hope it doesn’t happen, instead, he anticipate that it will. By so doing he ventures off preparing for the worst case scenarios.

Efficiency in handling the prospect of failure doesn’t come from wishful thinking. Failure is real, but mentally tough people prepare for it and literally tells life to ‘bring it on’.

Elon Musk failed woefully in his first two attempts to launch a rocket into space, but he had anticipated failure; in an interview with esquire he stated that: if we don't get the first SpaceX rocket launch to succeed by the time we've spent $100 million, we will stop the company.

The first launch cost $30 million, but failed. The second cost $60 million, and also failed. Then the third and final succeeded, and won him a $1.6 billion contract from NASA. Mentally tough people's different view of failure is the mindset that allows them to keep fighting, regardless of the number of possible old losses.

They have it imbibed somewhere in their subconscious that it is ultimately up to them to decide what the end would look like. To them the fight is not over until they win.

In addition:

• Mentally tough people don’t mull over negative thoughts. They like to get to the root of past issues, constructively think them through, drop them, and then move on.
• They accept what they can't change, but starve them of attention. They focus more on what is within their power to change.
• They understand that there’s more to life than meets the eyes. So when dealing with people, especially critical or narcissistic people, the mentally tough usually give them the benefit of the doubt, understanding where they are coming from, and what they are going through or been through, as a build up to their present act. They tolerate as a result, and don’t let negative action determine their what they’ll do.

In life where we are constantly faced with opposing forces, mental toughness is a quintessential trait we should cultivate to be able to effectively wade through life’s current.