An Effective Exercise to Build Mental Toughness
No matter how prepared you are and how much you plan, some things will still go wrong. In those moments, mental toughness is essential. Yet, many people adopt the mindset of “I’ll deal with setbacks when they happen.” While this approach is better than constant worry, it can also be shortsighted. Setbacks and challenges are inevitable, yet when life is smooth, we often avoid thinking about them.
Interestingly, good times are the perfect opportunity to prepare. When everything is going well, it’s ideal to focus on self-improvement and build resilience for the challenges ahead.
In contrast, when you’re in the middle of a personal crisis, you don’t have the time or energy to strengthen your mind and body. You need all your resources to make the best of what’s in front of you. It’s not a matter of if a setback will hit you, it’s a matter of when.
At some point, we all have to deal with death and grief. We all experience downs in our relationships. We all face personal crises and feeling down for no particular reason. And our mental toughness determines how well we deal with that.
Obstacles never come at a good time. When something bad happened to me I always said, “Why now?!” As if I had any control over external factors. It’s such a delusional thing to say and think.
