“Your mental toughness and resiliency is off the charts. Is there any one technique that you prefer above others?” Thank you! Before I list my favorite technique, I appreciate the ‘off the charts’ comment and want to discuss that a bit. I feel like I do have reasonably good mental …
Toughness and Antifragility
“Is there a practical way to be antifragile on a day to day basis- like actually getting better from experiencing adversity? I have been exploring this topic. It seems like looking for challenges puts you in a “I can handle everything” mindset. I know there is a “Antifragile” book but …
Top 3 Mental Toughness Exercises
“What would be your TOP 3 choices for exercises that literally affect mental toughness the most?”– Emil This is a tough question! I’m going to take a slightly different track and mention top three CATEGORIES of exercises as I think that may be more helpful. Endurance (Can Always Do One …
Stubbornness vs. Mental Toughness
In reply to the Dark Side of Mental Toughness, Rick sent this in… “Well I don’t think being stubborn to the point of stupidity has anything to do with mental toughness, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.” I disagree. Let me show you why… …
When to Push Through vs. When to Back Off
I want to share a note I received from a customer named Craig as it holds a couple of key learning lessons (one’s that even I need reminders of from time to time). “Unfortunately, I’ve also been dealing with an unexplained shoulder injury for the past month and a half. …
Breaking Mental Weakness
“what is one (or some) practice to break the habit of mental weakness? If I lean into the largest thing that scares me I usually get discouraged and fall back into old, weak habits.” A habit of mental weakness is what I would call a meta-habit. As in, it’s not …
The Dark Side of Mental Toughness
If some mental toughness is good, more must be better! Not true. In discussing mental toughness, it is key to understand that it has a shadow. And that shadow is that your mind can override things. It can override the signals that your body is sending you. It can override …
Mental Toughness is Overrated
Overrated. That’s not to say that it is not important, but some people place ALL importance on physical and mental toughness. In truth, this must be balanced with the other aspects. There is a time to be tough, and times not to be. In fact, there is a dark side …
Mental Toughness – Reflection and Perspective
Yesteday I shared the stories of crashing my car, my house burning down and more. (You can read them here if you missed it.) I want to dive more deeper into how my mental toughness has developed over time. And with that, let’s answer this question… “what is a realization …
What’s Your Mental Toughness Threshold?
Two similar questions to address on mental toughness today: “From what I have been able to observe there seems to be a threshold when toughness breaks down depending on how severe and/or prolonged the situation being dealt with is. Some individuals seem to be able to sustain MENTAL TOUGHNESS for …
Mental Toughness and Time
There’s a huge component of mental toughness that I don’t see often talked about. That is time. Mental toughness is a slippery topic. So is time. Combining the two, well, let’s see how this comes out! I refer back to the example of physical training to start with. There is …
Bypassing Mental Toughness
Yesterday, we explored the concept of how you can utilize willpower to get to where you want to go, but that’s not the only pathway. I shared this example: • If I “hate working out” => it will take willpower to do it• If I “love working out” => no …
Unlimited Willpower?
Yesterday I defined mental toughness/willpower as “using your mind or your will to do something that other parts of you do not want to do. It is being tough or overpowering that other side of you that wants to go a different direction.” I briefly covered the topic that mental …
Defining Mental Toughness
A little over a week back I asked for questions regarding mental toughness. I got flooded with them…and they were all over the place! Literally everything from motivation and focus, to handling bullies, to helping friends and family be tougher, to talking to women, to struggling with diet, to my …
Lessons from Home Burning – Part 1
Physical, Mental, Emotional and Character Strength On the night of August 19th my home burned completely to the ground. A few people made comments to the effect of it being telling that the only thing left standing was my power rack. That this was a symbol of strength. I agree! …