To become Mentally tough requires work and patience, and is accompanied by frustration. The only reason to put yourself through this experience is the expectation that doing so will noticeably improve your life.
To that end, let’s quickly examine 10 ways that toughening your mind against adversity will benefit you for years to come.
The benefits of Becoming Mentally Tough are
Benefit 1 – Greater Resistance to Negative Emotions Emotions are a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, they allow us to experience joy, motivate us to take action, and help us to empathize with others.
However, they can also sabotage us. Negative emotions, such as anger, shame, fear, and anxiety prompt us to make terrible decisions, hide mistakes, and feel like giving up when things go awry.
When you become mentally tough, you’ll be better able to regulate your emotions. You’ll still be in touch with them, but negative feelings will have less impact on your behavior and responses to adverse conditions.
Benefit 2 – Improved Performance Peak performance stems from your mindset. This includes how you respond to setbacks.
Whether you’re an athlete, surgeon, chef, or musician, your ability to perform at a high level depends on how you feel and react when things go wrong.
If you wilt when you encounter setbacks, your performance will suffer. Worse, you’ll never fully reach your potential.
Mental toughness prepares you for obstacles. Rather than wilting when you encounter them, you’ll approach them with grace and self-confidence. You’ll be better able to weather difficult or unplanned circumstances and overcome challenges.
Benefit 3 – Confidence That Circumstances Will Improve If you’re not resilient to adversity, it’s easy to become fatalistic when things go wrong.
You may feel like giving up, convinced that life isn’t fair. You might be inclined to concede defeat, telling yourself that persevering would be for naught because current conditions are unlikely to get better.
But that’s a false assumption. Circumstances always change. And they often do so as a result of our actions.
Stressful situations can either become more stressful or relaxing based on our behavioral responses to stress-inducing stimuli.
Uncomfortable situations can either become more uncomfortable or pleasant based on how we react to our environments.
When you’re mentally resilient to difficult situations, you’re able to tolerate them, confident that your resolve will be rewarded as circumstances inevitably improve.
Benefit 4 – Greater Ability to Manage Stress Stress stems from the expectation of consequences, both real and perceived. It comes from the knowledge that high stakes are involved in whatever we’re doing.
If we perform poorly, something bad will happen. For example, salespeople must hit their sales quotas or risk losing their jobs and income.
Firefighters must perform their jobs effectively or others might lose their lives. Athletes must perform at a high level or risk being outperformed by their competitors.
Mental strength allows you to endure the pressure. Rather than succumbing to it, you’re able to thrive under it.
Your tenacity helps you to stay motivated, optimistic, and confident in your abilities in high-stress situations.
Benefit 5 – Less Susceptibility to Self-Doubt No one escapes self-doubt entirely. Show me someone who always seems self-possessed, even to the point of arrogance, and I’ll show you someone who occasionally (and perhaps even frequently) second-guesses himself or herself. Self-doubt affects us all.
So we wonder whether we’ll be able to compete effectively and question whether we’ll achieve our goals.
We even entertain worst-case scenarios, allowing our inner critics to wreak havoc with our confidence.
Mental toughness doesn’t eliminate self-doubt. Instead, it prevents self-doubt from sabotaging your performance.
It gives you a chance to acknowledge that even though failure is a possibility, fear of it stems from insecurity rather than hard evidence. Success is probably more likely than your inner critic insinuates.
Benefit 6 – Greater Clarity Regarding Your Intentions and Purpose Dealing with adverse situations is difficult when you’re uncertain of the reasons you’re doing so.
It is hard to stay motivated to act if you’re unclear about why you’re putting in the effort. For example, suppose you’ve spent months looking for a job.
Leads are showing little promise and your savings account is dwindling dangerously low. It’s easy to become frustrated.
It’s tempting to give up. Such is the power of despair because it focuses on failure, obfuscating your purpose in the process.
When you’re mentally strong, you’re able to focus on the reasons you’re trying to accomplish your goal. You’re less susceptible to feelings of hopelessness because you know why you’re taking action.That knowledge keeps you motivated to face any challenges that come your way.
Benefit 7 – Fearlessness Fear of the unknown is one of the most common obstacles to our achieving our potential.
It manifests in different ways, but one of these ways is familiar to us all: alarm at the prospect of venturing beyond our comfort zones.
Humans place enormous value on comfort and predictability. We might claim to relish surprises and spontaneity, but in truth, most of us are creatures of habit. We follow routines.
These routines make us feel comfortable and in control of our environments. To that end, the idea of trying something new causes us to hesitate. We fear the unknown.
Mental toughness erodes this fear. It gives us the courage to venture outside our comfort zones and try new things. To that end, it gives us the opportunity to grow, developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge and insight.
Benefit 8 – Ability to Accept (And Learn From) Failure Failure is an inescapable part of life. It’s an ever-present possibility whenever we try to accomplish something. Most people will go to great lengths to avoid failure.
They perceive it as an indictment of their character and value. Accordingly, they avoid taking risks and making mistakes, even though doing so stunts their personal and professional growth.
Failure, to them, is unacceptable. Mental resilience prepares you to not only accept failure as a potential outcome of any endeavor, but allows you to learn from your mistakes.
Rather than perceiving failure as a judgement on your character and value, you’ll see it as a chance to take corrective action for improved performance in the future. The prospect of failing will no longer hold any power over you.
Benefit 9 – Greater Ability to Delay Gratification Given a choice, we prefer to experience gratification now rather than later. It’s human nature.
The problem is, this intuitive inclination often imposes negative consequences and motivates us to give up on our goals because they require too much effort.
It chips away at our patience and impulse control as we perceive forbearance to be a type of needless suffering.
This discourages us from working hard toward accomplishing an objective because we’re tempted by the pleasures available to us in the moment. Mental strength amplifies your ability to delay gratification.
You’ll no longer be at the mercy of your impulses. You’ll be able to resist the temptations that surround you and devote your energy and attention to endeavors that promise bigger dividends down the road.
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Benefit 10 – Willingness to Let Things Go We tend to hold onto things that have caused us emotional pain.
Examples include mistakes that carried terrible consequences, perceived slights from others, and regrettable decisions from our distant past.
These things can sometimes begin to define us. They become a part of our identity. When they become so, they rob us of the inner peace and confidence we would otherwise experience.
When you develop mental toughness, you’ll become more inclined to let such things go. Rather than dwelling on past pains and regrets, you’ll see them as stepping stones to your continual growth.
Every mistake become a lesson from which to acquire insight and Every perceived slight becomes an opportunity to nurture valued relationships. Every regrettable decision becomes a chance to reexamine your intentions and ensure they align with your values.
Ultimately, after these things have served their purpose, you’ll be able to move on, leaving them where they belong: in the past. This section was a long one. But it’s important to recognize what you stand to gain from pursuing mental toughness. Let’s now investigate the common attributes of mentally-tough people.
About author
I am certified in addiction counseling, public health, health education, mental health and I am also an AIDS-certified registered nurse with more than 30 years of experience and founder of Hindi health point
