Increasing Mental Strength & Tapping into Your Fullest Potential

It’s so easy to dream.

It’s easy to tell people about your ambitions.

It’s easy to create vision boards and write down your goals.

It’s easy to stand in front of a mirror and declare affirmations.

But… in order to be successful and meet your full potential, you need to put in the work.

Mental toughness will help!

What is mental toughness?

Mental toughness is the ability to resist, manage and overcome doubts, worries, concerns, and circumstances that prevent you from succeeding and excelling at a task or towards an objective or a performance outcome that you set out to achieve.

Physical fitness gets a lot of attention, but I believe mental fitness/toughness is equally important. Your body will only achieve what your mind believes. Having a healthy and strong mind will allow you to handle the challenges and opportunities that life throws at you.

To gain better mental focus and strength and to reach your goals you need to do a few things…

Write down your goals.

YOU set these goals. Goals keep you focused on what’s next, and writing them down keeps you on track. Don’t let anybody else tell you what your goals should be.

Choose things out of reach.

Don’t just think about what is “realistic.” The problem with realistic thinking is that it’s usually based on what others think is possible. They don’t know your potential. Whenever you start a task with a mind toward the potential outcome, you will limit the actions required to accomplish that goal.

Tolerate discomfort for a greater purpose.

Discomfort can lead people to take unhealthy shortcuts. Rather than deal with a problem, people may ignore it altogether, walk away, or reach for something that provides immediate emotional relief, i.e eating, drinking, scrolling through social media, watching TV, etc… short-term solutions can often create bigger long-term problems. It’s important to practice tolerating discomfort by reminding yourself of the bigger picture. Don’t try to escape it. The more you tolerate discomfort, the more confidence you’ll have in your ability to do difficult things and the more you will succeed.

Do one hard thing every day.

You won’t improve by accident. Purposely challenge yourself. Of course, what’s challenging to you might not be to someone else, so you need to analyze your comfort zone and then pick something slightly outside your zone and take one small step every day. Push yourself to become a little better today than you were the day before.

Always do one more.

The next time you think you can’t do something, prove yourself wrong. Commit to always doing one more. Your mind will want to quit long before your body needs to give up. So prove to yourself that you’re more capable than you give yourself credit for, and over time, your brain will stop underestimating your potential.

Strive to fulfill your purpose.

It’s hard to stay the course unless you know your overall purpose. Write out a clear and concise mission statement about what you want to accomplish in life and then start to work towards it every day. When you’re struggling to take the next step, remind yourself why it’s important to keep going. Focus on your daily objectives, but make sure the steps you’re taking will get you to your larger goal in the long run.

Take action.

Go beyond what's normal or typical for you. Push beyond your limits until one day the unusual activity is not so unusual, but a habit for you and part of your routine. Big goals require big actions. In order to reach your full potential, you must take huge steps and actions towards completing your goal. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Stay persistent and NEVER quit.

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The ability to persist on your path regardless of setbacks, unexpected events, bad news, and resistance to continue firmly in your purpose in spite of conditions is a trait common to those who are successful. Reaching your fullest potential requires you to be persistent; there are no quitters here.

In all, work hard and never limit your potential success and never limit what you will do to create and keep that success. Have monster goals and continue to attack them hard EVERY DAY! Remember that people who are highly successful continue to work, produce and create long after they’ve flourished.

Do Hard Things!

You have to do hard things to be happy in life. And doing the hard things is a skill to be honed.  At the basic level, it’s the ability to overcome distractions and get the right things done, even if you don't want to in that moment.  Doing hard things is a sacrifice and one that may not offer immediate satisfaction. However, you need to trust that those hard things are going to help get you where you want to be.  And in order to excel, live your dreams and be your best, you need to do the things no one else is willing to do. The things others can’t do for you. The things that make you question how much longer you can hold on and push forward. That's when you know you're on the right path. If your dreams don't frighten, they arent big enough.  

When I wanted to open a yoga studio, everyone thought I was crazy. They asked, how are you going to pull that off? Do you have enough money? Why leave a good and stable job in education, a pension? But I didn't care what other people said, I new what was right for me and trusted that the Universe had my back.  

Was opening a business easy? Absolutely not. Was it scary at times? Definitely. It's hard to quit a job and move forward into the unknown. I spent 2 years in limbo wondering what the hell had I done. However, I was able to figure it out, because if there is a will there's a way. Things weren't and still aren't perfect, I have challenges like anyone else, but I embrace each challenge in stride and continue on my path, unwilling to give up or back down. The hard things are what lead you to where you are meant to be, you just have to be willing to take the risk, have patience, and faith that it will all work out.

Those hard things in life are what define us.  Taking the risk and doing hard things is the difference between existing and living… between knowing our path and walking our path. It's the difference between an average life and the living the life of our dreams, filled with success and happiness.

Most people avoid the hard things, they procrastinate, make excuses or pretend like they somehow don’t apply to their life or situation. However, the truth is that ordinary people can achieve immense success and happiness if they are willing to step out of their comfort zones and do the hard things that others don’t have the courage, drive or determination to do.

I dare you to stop sitting back and watching your life happen and take control.  Start doing those hard things TODAY. I guarantee, you will be amazed at how strong and remarkable you really are and just how amazing your life can be.