Mentally Tough: Is That You?

When times get hard, really heard, we often tell ourselves and others to toughen up, to brace yourself, to not let the S.0.B.s get you down, etc.

Great advice, right? Unless you aren’t able to muster up the toughness you feel a situation requires because you don’t know how to do that exactly.

But you can learn how to help yourself stay the course.

According to Dr. Travis Bradberry there are 15 critical habits of mentally tough people. He listed them in a recent Huffington Post article.

Here are some of my favorites:

Emotional Intelligence: This flexible skill can be learned. You can learn to deal with strong negative emotions by discovering how to understand and tolerate them. This results in response, rather than reaction.
Embrace Change: Being open to change – which is inevitable - so that you can adapt to in positive ways is crucial to maintaining a mental toughness during trying times. A willingness to shift perspective and to think outside the box can be developed.

Don’t Dwell on Mistakes: We all make them. Focus your attention on what is working rather than what is not working. If you make a choice that produces an undesired outcome, make note of that lesson and move on. Otherwise you will become paralyzed by your own thinking and judgements.

Exercise: Release emotions that get trapped in the body. These toxic blockages can keep you in a funk. Listen to music and move around the room or stretch your arm and leg muscles with easy to do exercises. All of the can help clear out the cobwebs that shut out mental clarity.

Remaining Positive: Positive attitudes do more good than harm. Take note of what is right in the world, or in the situation you are currently addressing. Those sought out kernels are uplifting and can brighten an otherwise very dull and gray day.

Mental toughness calls upon us to be creative and resilient in the face of trauma or tragedy. If we can develop those areas where we are not strong, we can not only survive, but thrive.

Each of these as well as the other 10, are designed to help you keep mentally tough. To read the complete article, click here.