Talent is overrated and the mentally tough are more likely to succeed in business and in life. Resilience and robustness are preconditions to achievement. Most people are now aware of this, but unclear how to take things from the realm of interesting information to practical benefit.
The good news for those who aspire to greater things is that mental toughness can be increased. This is something that sports and military psychologists have known for years. There are an increasing array of mental conditioning processes, validated by Neuroscience, that can make the mentally weak strong, and the strong, stronger.
One of the simplest ways to increase your mental toughness is by conditioning your brain to accept and embrace discomfort on a regular basis.Ā By pushing boundaries and introducing new daily and weekly challenges, your nervous system will adapt and you will grow stronger.
These ā challengesā can be minor tweaks, walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, doing 50 push ups instead of 25, waiting that bit longer for your next meal or going without, giving social media a miss for a week or anything else that causes you discomfort on some level. The objective is to be comfortable being outside of your comfort zone.
Cold Shower Therapy
Taking cold showers is one way of bringing instant discomfort as well as providing many health benefits (increasing testosterone, boosting the immune system and decreasing inflammation to name a few). I have been taking cold showers for a few years now and no longer enjoy a hot shower (perhaps I need to mix things up and push myself by taking hot showers).
Taking it one step further, there are an increasing number of world-class athletes who take regular ice baths for 30 minutes or more. Having experience of ice baths, I can assure you that this is not a practice for the faint hearted.
The Spartans, who didnāt know the meaning of ācomfort zoneā and despised weakness of any kind, used cold water to develop their toughness, bathing in freezing water on a regular basis.
If you decide to use physical challenges (including cold showers) as a tool for developing your mental toughness then take things gradually (if you have any health conditions or are infirm in any way then consult your doctor). Push your boundaries by increments e.g. change the water temperature slightly every day.
Stick with your daily discomforts for a month and soon youāll start to embrace challenge as your brain makes the link between challenges leading to mental toughness.
Martin Soorjoo works with teams and individuals helping them increase their performance and resilience.