Forging Mental Toughness

Be it throughout our career, be it in sports, in work or in anything that requires a certain amount of effort (and by certain amount, it usually means huge!); the "quit option" always seems easier to choose BUT is more complicated than it appears.

It is easy to tell yourself "no way will I quit" when in reality your belief systems driving your subconscious mind are telling you quite the opposite.

This would have us looking at the comparison of short term pain of suffering VS. long term pain of regret. 

In short, the higher the risk and the stakes, the higher the suffering required to prevail. Also the higher the regret associated with failure. (This is another topic which i would cover in another post)

As with Aaron Ralston who chopped his arm off after 127 hours of being stuck between a rock and hard place, quitting is simply not an option. I highly recommend you see his movie "127 Hours" or "Into the Void" to observe outstanding psychological profiles of mental toughness. We also looked at how our belief systems limit our physical performance, something we call the 20X factor. We are capable of at least 20 times what we think we are. The only thing standing between us now, and the 20x us, is our "knowingness" of this fact. Again it is our subconscious mind, not our "thinking" mind, which either supports or torpedoes a belief such as this.

During a seminar that i attended about 2 years back, i found that research shows that 12% of our brain-power is handled by our conscious "thinking" mind while 88% is handled by our subconscious mind.

Wow! I want to know how to tap into that 88% don't you? (I call the conscious or thinking mind our "monkey mind" because it is always grabbing for the next thought or stimulus and doesn't take time to pause or digest what it is already chewing on!) Here are some more tactics to help guide us. Set Goals the right way

Yes, I know. Goal setting is mundane isn't it?

Have you reviewed yours today? Have you worked on the #1 thing today that is going to move you closer to your major goal tomorrow? What happens when your goals fail to be realistic? Do you have a method for checking it against reality? Are you tracking them?

Goal setting is a very powerful tool, and it is useless when done in a silly way. Goal setting helps us to maintain a positive and forward momentum, a way to track our progress, and a way to focus our efforts on the important, rather than just the urgent, things. Proper goals are stated in precise and positive terms. They are measurable and have a modest time frame associated with them. Too short and either they are not meaty enough, or you are setting yourself up for failure. Too long and you lose the urgency and they fall off the radar.

Goals must be achievable, in that you have the potential to accomplish them with the skills and resources available. Also they must be realistic, even if achievable, are they realistic for you to even go for it?  When the going gets tough, goals take on a whole new level of importance.

In Hell Week, we were not setting our sights on "being a Naval Diver" or even "getting that badge." Either of these is a SMART goal when I was preparing for Class 2. But during Hell Week or any arduous situation, we require a different method.

In the tough spots I recommend to collapse your goal setting to the very near term. I call these "micro-goals." The great thing about micro-goals is that they lead to "micro-victories." You stack up enough micro-victories and pretty soon you have achieved a huge milestone! Back to the Hell Week example. A terrible goal would be to "make it to Friday." When you are in the depths of despair on Monday morning at 4am, sleep deprived and depressed, Friday seems a very, very long way away.A better goal would be to make it to sunrise. The sun has a remarkable ability to both warm you up, and cheer you up. Things suddenly don't look as bad at 7am as they did at 4am. Micro Goal. Micro Victory. Next. The hidden secret with micro-goal setting is that it forces our monkey mind to focus on what is happening right now, rather than what may happen in the future where it wishes to be. Focus on the next meal, the next event, or even the next footstep. These short and achievable goals help to enlist our monkey mind to be an ally versus enemy in our fight.