What is mental toughness? Can you train it? Is it something you have or don’t have? All of these questions are not only important to look into but also very critical for you to over come those boundaries in life and in training.
The question is “How do you get it?” For some this is a rather easy question to answer. Mental toughness is built through constant struggle, defeat and perseverance. Many people do not have this ability to keep going when it feels or appears to be hard. You need to train this part of your mind. Everything in life is mental and that mental aspect can make or break you!
Did you know mental toughness is measurable? The two parameters that make up mental toughness are high dominance and low stress. These have a real, physical, and measurable existence in the form of testosterone (the dominance hormone) and cortisol (the stress hormone). When testosterone levels are high and cortisol levels are low, most people perform well under pressure. When the are in reverse, you get nerves and anxiety.
So what do hormones have to do with it? Your body can dictate how you see your circumstances, how your respond, how you perform, and how you think. They’re the essential, fundamental building blocks of mindset, and they don’t live in some abstract mental world. When you can learn to focus in on these behaviors, your can ultimately change your mindset on confidence, focus, motivation, the ability to perform under pressure. All of those things coincide with mental toughness.
Still, we havn’t figured out how to get mental toughness. It’s easy when things go your way and you have forward momentum. But what happens when the odds are against you? The key is training and maintaining a positive, forceful mindset so you have it no matter what. If you can keep your mindset focused on the positive outcome, there is no way you can get down!
If you want to make a real and significant transformation in your mental toughness, it’s up to you to turn your body and brain into a good vibes machine that’s going to give you results. If you approach your life with an earnest, experimental attitude, you’ll find out for yourself what I and many others have found, and what the research supports: you can train mental toughness. You can train it like anything else: strength, speed, mobility, whatever. You don’t have to be born one of those few noble souls we call naturals. And no matter where you start, you can always improve.
Reference: Breaking muscle