Success in many areas of life is about 80% mindset, 20% mechanics. Your mindset determines how much you ultimately achieve in life. The mind has so much power yet we do not get taught how to use it properly as part of our school learning. It creates our reality of the world. Yet it is only a map. It is not the territory. That is why two people can have the same chances, the same talents yet one keeps succeeding whereas the other keeps giving up. It comes back to which mind map is being used.



So, how mentally tough are you?

If you have experienced and overcome hardships in your early years than these will have helped you to build your mental toughness. Helped to shape your character. Helped you to manage life's stresses and strains. Yet you must still learn to block out the negatives. Get rid of the squeaky mouse voice. Instead be the mouse who roared like a lion. He frightened the cat out of the house.

You must learn to back yourself. We have so much more physical and mental strength than we consciously use. Especially if our lives or the life of a loved one is at stake. A mother will summon every nerve, bone and sinew to protect her young baby. Perhaps you have done something similar. Have you worked all night to get a job done? Or perhaps slept under the desk and started again at first light. Have you been heart-broken and yet still lived on?

Struggle is good. It makes you tough. Nothing will ever be perfect. Do the best that you can with what you have got now! Don't say I'll wait until things get better. Or I'll wait until I am better. Learn to be better right now. Yes, you will have moments where the world will completely knock you over. But you must pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and continue on.

I remember a client who lost everything in a bad deal. Lost the business, the house, the car and other assets. So he took on a job as a toilet cleaner. He said his life had literally turned to excrement. Yet he turned cleaning toilets into a learning experience. He saw it like martial arts for life. Cleaning each cubicle was like a training round where he practiced his techniques. Except there was no opponent. Just himself. He faced and smelt some bad stuff. Yet he just knocked it all out with some strong scrubbing action and powerful detergent. He slowly turned his life around for the better and is now no longer cleaning toilets.

So find ways in which to build up your mental toughness. Here are some short steps you can use.

1. How To Turn It On Or Off.

You need to know how to turn your mental toughness on and off like a switch. Some people can confuse mental toughness with physical strength. Or being rude, pushy and aggressive. Nah, some of the toughest soldiers or survivors I know are really nice, unassuming people. They are not physically impressive to look at yet in a crisis they flick on a mental switch. They become like men and women of steel. So imagine you have a switch that you can flick on or off when you need to.

2. Use Your Fear As A Tough Teacher.

Fear is a tough teacher. It will grab your mind and body and twist both out of shape very quickly. So you must learn to to manage all the knots and twists. This is called courage. Fear teaches you courage. Without fear, you cannot test your courage. So use your fears to practice being courageous. This is part of being mentally tough.

3. Practice Between Performances

Another key point is to practice your key skills under pressure. Just like any great musician, actor or athlete practices between performances. Not wait for the actual performance to test your skills. You might want to test your decision-making under pressure. So that you can keep a cool head and make wise choices when it is needed.

4. Use Common Sense.

Being mentally tough also requires a bit of common sense. No point in showing great willpower and determination if you are driving on the wrong side of the road. That is just plain stupidity.

So find ways to improve your mental toughness. The simplest way is to use the big challenges in your life right now as tough teachers.