A Novel Way to Develop Mental Toughness

The best method for dealing with frustration

I came to mental toughness because of an interest in coping with plateaus, reversals, and fallbacks, the usual pitfalls of goal striving.

This essay addresses a novel and effective way to develop more mental toughness.

Mental toughness is like resilience, but it includes more. It goes beyond the capacity to bounce back from stress and adversity.

Mental Toughness More than Resilience

This essay addresses an effective way to develop more mental toughness.

It also covers other qualities, like tolerance for uncertainty and choosing courage over comfort.

I like this definition of mental toughness:” The ability to consistently perform towards the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances.” Dr. Jim Loehr of the Human Performance Institute.

Need for a Protective Shell

I first encountered the need for mental toughness when implementing my personal development goals of smoking cessation, weight loss, and cold calling in sales.

Any kind of striving is likely to call upon your capacity for mental toughness to assist you in your continuing efforts.

Whatever your personal development goal, whether it is to save money, improve your communication skills, grow your network, or improve your self-care, all these goals involve effort that can benefit from mental toughness for facing hard going,

Mental toughness helps with short-term fallbacks, recovery after fallbacks, and patching up tattered motivation when the will to persist weakens.

How To Develop Mental Toughness

The trial-and-error method can best improve mental toughness. You learn that progress only happens when you find ways to keep going in the face of challenges and conflict.

What are your options if you begin to feel daunted in your efforts? Short of leaving the field, what can you do? You find a workaround that circumvents the difficulty.

When I stopped smoking, I tried many methods before finding a successful strategy. I knew I would not give up but assumed a way would be discovered by continued experimentation.

Or, if you hit a brick wall, you can leapfrog over the obstacle with sheer determination, insight, and willfulness.

Leapfrogging

The main idea behind the concept of leapfrogging is that small, incremental innovations can permit you to overcome an obstacle.

I had no leads or prospects when I started residential real estate. My sales manager claimed cold-calling prospects were an excellent way to find customers. However, no one in my office used this method. I soon discovered why: it is a highly discomforting way of marketing yourself.

After many months of studying the problem, I produced a method for overcoming the discomfort: I changed my mindset. Instead of being seduced by my fears, I convinced myself that the outcome of the call was unlikely to be rudely rebuffed, and if it were, I could handle it

In the language of self-help literature, I developed a positive mindset. And it can be asserted this is the primary avenue for developing mental toughness. You must evaluate your core beliefs. And change them where possible.

Your beliefs are the colored glasses through which you see the world. You interpret everything around you through that lens.

Core beliefs are assumptions about us, others, or situations we encounter. These beliefs can have several adverse effects. They could keep you from making good choices, taking new opportunities, or reaching your potential.

What do you strongly believe? That you’re not good enough? That you can’t go outside your comfort zone?

Core beliefs come from our values and influence how we take in information.

Changing Core Beliefs

Core beliefs can be deep-rooted and hard to change. But it is possible

The first step to changing a core belief is acknowledging that it exists and giving voice to it.

Next, observe how your beliefs affect your life; ask how things would look different if you did not have your limiting belief.

Then test the belief to see if it is true. In my cold-calling example, I tested the view held by my fellow agents that cold-calling led only to rejection and embarrassment. Through experience, I came to see this belief was erroneous.

Yes, there was rejection, but the norms of politeness protected you from embarrassment. Armed with a new mindset, I powered ahead with the desired action.

Summary

I first encountered the need for mental toughness when implementing my personal development goals of smoking cessation, weight loss, and cold calling in sales. Whatever your personal development goal, whether it is to save money, improve your communication skills, grow your network, or improve your self-care, all these goals involve effort that can benefit from mental toughness for facing the hard going. Mental toughness helps with short-term fallbacks, recovery after fallbacks, and patching up tattered motivation when the will to persist weakens. Core beliefs can be deep-rooted and hard to change. But it is possible by testing the validity of existing ideas.

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