Developing Mental Toughness
Developing Mental Toughness
You know a lot of the challenges in our lives start in our mind. We don’t believe that we are capable, we don’t believe we are good enough, or smart enough, or pretty enough. We feel challenged in our mind. Mindset is so very important. We have to develop a mental toughness and a mindset that will allow us to be over comers and achieve results in every area of our lives. So today I want this session to serve you well and we are going to talk about 5 Principles that will develop your mental toughness. Let’s start with number one…
Fight for Yourself.
Number one is to fight for yourself. Not everyone is going to fight for you, not everyone is going to believe in you, you have to be willing to fight for yourself. You have to fight for that dream if you really want it. You have to fight for that goal that you really want. You are going to come against obstacles, you are going to run into roadblocks and things trying to block you from getting through. You are going to face barriers and things that will stop you from achieving greatness. You have to be willing to fight for yourself. You have to become your own alley. You have to be the country that believes in yourself and the country that supports believing in yourself, you have to play the team of me here.
You have to be able to believe in yourself, you have to fight for yourself. Don’t expect others to fill in the gap for you, don’t expect others to jump in and fight against those things. You know what else? You also have to fight to protect the borders around your dreams. You have to be willing to defend the things that you want to achieve because there are going to be people in life that are not going to believe in you, that are not going to support you. They will try to come against you. They are going to say it can’t be done. You will find people, that because they haven’t achieved their goals and haven’t achieved their dreams, they are going to try and sabotage what it is you are doing. You have to be willing to defend the borders that you have set around your dreams.
Don’t let anyone inside your borders that will try to stop you from greatness. So number one to developing a mental toughness and a strong mindset is you have to fight for yourself. Don’t expect anyone else to fight for you. Develop a sense of fight. Have that Gladiator type of mentality that says, I’m not going to take it sitting down, I’m not going to allow people to run over me, I’m not going to allow people to tell me my dreams don’t matter, or my voice doesn’t matter, or nothing counts. No, I am going to stand up and fight for what I believe in. That is how you develop mental toughness.
It won’t matter what others say to you, or try and denounce your belief system, or come against you because you are willing to fight for it. You have worked too hard to get where you are, you’ve studied too many nights, you stayed up late for too long, you cried too many tears and now you are not going to allow someone to take from you what you have built. That is how you develop mental toughness.
Fight for Yourself. That is an awesome principle. Let’s talk about number two…
Believe in the Value of Your Own Voice.
Let me slow down for a minute to say this again…You have to believe in the value, the worth of your own voice. Esteem means to “appreciate the worth of.” Do you appreciate the worth and the value of your own voice? Let me tell you something, your voice counts. Your opinion matters. Don’t let anyone denounce your opinion. Watch this, you can get caught up in the voices of those around you and the opinions of those around you, that it will weaken your mental toughness. Because now you take on the opinions of others. You take on the ideas and thoughts of others and you start following after what they believe in, but those are not your opinions, those are not your belief systems.
You have been listening to the voices of those around you instead of listening to your own internal voice. Often the confusion we have mentally is because we have been listening to external influencers.
External voices have robbed and stripped us of our internal voice. So number two to strengthening your mental toughness is believing in the value of your own voice. Often times when we follow behind what other people are doing and follow someone else’s voice we allow them to speak for us.
With an election, we allow a politician to speak for us, tell us what we want, and tell us what we need. But in your own life, you can’t elect an official to speak for you. You can’t elect someone to speak for you. You have to find the value, the quality, and the beauty in your own voice. I encourage you today that in order to build up your mental toughness, and repel thoughts that will break you down and cause you to become weak, you have to be able to find the value in your own voice. Now here is number three…
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others.
This is a common one that you have heard before, but we often don’t think about this. Number three is simple, don’t compare yourself to others. Now I know what you are saying, “Adam that’s a simple concept, I’ve heard it a million times, and I don’t compare myself to others.” But do you really take inventory of that statement? Do you really not compare? Do we take a peek over into what others are doing and allow that to sabotage our success?
Did you know that comparison is a hidden cancer that eats us a way one look at a time? Let me say that again, “Comparison is the hidden cancer that eats us away one look at a time. Every time we take our eyes off of our goals, every time we take our eyes off of what we are trying to accomplish and take a peek over at what others are doing it can weaken our strength. It can weaken our mental toughness.
Now we begin to think differently. We don’t see the value in our voice anymore because we are too busy being concerned about what someone else is doing.
If you are a speaker are you peeking at what other speakers are doing and saying I’m not good enough?
If you are a writer are you looking at what other writers are have written and saying my voice on this page is simply not good enough? If you are a CEO, are you looking at another CEO and saying he or she is doing this and that in their company, and I don’t know if I have what it takes to make my company what it needs to be?
It doesn’t matter what position you are in or what role you are playing in life, you can’t compare yourself to others. Comparison will destroy you. Do you know that jealously and envy and energy stealers. Wow, let me say that again. Jealousy and envy are energy stealers. It takes energy to be jealous of someone, checking their Facebook page, watching their Twitter account, and following what they are doing and then becoming envious and jealous of what they are doing.
Jealously and envy will rob you of energy that you could be using to build your own dynasty and that you could be using to build your own career, and your own goals. Are you using jealously and envy and allow it to rob you of your energy? Are you exhausted at the end of the day because you were concerned about what others were doing? Are you comparing yourself to someone else’s success? Don’t use comparison as a baseline for success. If you want to be mentally tough, if you want to develop strength in your mind, stop comparing yourself to what other people are doing. Focus on your goals, focus on your dreams, and write on your own timeline. Create your own memories, create your own dreams, and create your own success. Now here is number four…
Don’t Be Afraid to Take Risks.
This is a powerful, simple concept but we don’t really apply it when it’s time to cross over the border into success. Everything that we want to do is on the other side of Fear. The only thing that separates you from your goal, the only thing that separates you from starting that business, the only that separates you from getting that promotion, the only thing that separates you from successful relationships is FEAR.
Success is a bridge that we have to cross and fear is often standing in front of the bridge saying don’t go any further. It is our own fear that holds us back. So number four is that you can’t be afraid to take risks. You can’t be afraid to step outside of the box of normality and conformity. You can’t go along with what everyone else is doing. You have to be able to break out of your shell. You have to be able to say, I’m going to take a risk here. It might cost me something, but it’s worth the effort. I’m not going to give up. I’m going to put full effort to what I am doing. If you want to build mental toughness, you can’t have fear.
You can’t be mentally tough and be afraid at the same time. They can’t dwell together. Either you are going to be afraid and shrink back or you are going to walk in faith and approach what you need to approach. Approach those dreams, approach those goals. Don’t be afraid to take that risk. Often you have time to fail, recover from the failure, and go on to try something else until you find success. But if you hold back and live in fear and you say I’m never going to take a risk, you will never know what you have missed until you try.
When we die, when life has drawn to a close, when we have reached the end of ourselves, and we have reached the end of life the only thing that we will regret are the things that we were afraid to try. We will regret that we were afraid to take risks, we played it safe in life. We played it “so-called” safe, we followed along in a normal pattern and when life comes to a close, we look back, and wish we had taken risks, we wished we had dreamed a little bit bigger. We will wished we had took more action towards our goals and our dreams. You don’t have to regret. If you are watching this video and reading this, you are alive, you have breath and you are living right in this moment. Don’t be afraid to take risks. If you want to develop a mental toughness, learn to take risks. Now here is number five…
Master Your Physiology.
In order to have mental toughness, we have to master our physiology, our physical body. We have to engage our body, exercise, and have physical movement. You can’t overcome obstacles with a weak body. You can’t fight against the challenges that life throws at you with sickness and disease in your body. You have to be able to master your physical, your physiology.
It’s been proved by science, by neuroscience, and by doctors that when you exercise, you engage cells in the brain. When you exercise you get the brain to start moving, you engage your metabolism, and everything gets moving when you get your body up and in gear.
Don’t fall for the trick that a health club program or you need 20 people to work out with you. No, just put your gym shoes on and start walking. Get on the treadmill, take that walk outside, walk the dog, and do whatever you have to do to get that body in gear and I promise you that you will be able to develop mental toughness like you have never seen before all because you have learned how to master your physiology. You must be healthy and you have to operate with a strong body. Without a strong body you will experience weakness. So number 5 is master physiology.
Developing Mental Toughness:
Fight for Yourself.
Believe in the Value of Your Own Voice.
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others.
Don’t Be Afraid to Take Risks.
Master Your Physiology
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About Adam White
Adam White is one of the most thought provoking speakers and leadership experts that you will ever experience. Entrepreneur and Author of the bestselling book, “A Leader Others Will Follow: The Power of Influence, Adam speaks to organizations across the country inspiring them to be their very best both personally and professionally. He speaks in the areas of Leadership, Psychology, Human Behavior, Motivation, and Professional Development
At one point in his life, Adam lost everything he had and was forced to move into his parent’s basement. The basement experience was a turning point in his life and in 2 short years he turned his life around, buying a Subway Franchise and more than 14 investment properties. Adam quickly became an inspiration and mentor to many others and leaders in particular. 10 years of research and experience became things that he has used to add value to the lives of others. Adam’s life purpose and mission is to help others become great leaders, great influencers and leave their impact on this world by sharing their voice.
Michigan SGMP named Adam “the best speaker they had ever heard.”
Fox Rothschild Attorneys at Law said “Adam’s message should be shared with government leaders and the world.”
To learn more about his speaking, seminars, books, and online courses, visit him at www.adamwhitespeaks.com.