In A Pickle? Use Your Mental Toughness To Burst Out Of The Blocks

Being mentally tough means you have a confident and resilient mindset which helps you improve your performance and wellbeing in every part of your life including work, personal relationships and leisure. It is a “must have” life skill.

The MTQ48 4C mental toughness framework is a simple and scientifically valid guide to building your mental toughness. I have outlined below the broad principles under each heading of the 4C’s, which comprise Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence.

CONTROL – BE IN CONTROL OF YOURSELF AND YOUR EMOTIONS

Being in control of what happens to you and how you react is fundamental to being able to enjoy a happy and successful life.

Being in control stems from having a meaning or purpose to what you do and knowing what matters to you and what doesn’t. This purpose gives you direction and perspective to your life or work and enables you to better overcome setbacks and challenges. Knowing the boundaries to what matters helps you focus your energies on what you believe in and can control and less about those you are less interested in or can’t control.

Being in control helps you to manage your emotions and anxiety so that you can respond in the way you want to rather than react in the ways you don’t when stressful situations arise.

COMMITMENT – SET AND DELIVER YOUR GOALS                    

Doing things. Making it happen. Achieving goals.

Being successful in your life is about setting goals that are important to you fulfilling your purpose and then achieving them to the required standard one step at a time.

The better you are at doing this the more successful you will be and it starts with setting goals that are achievable and then taking action. The first action is almost always the hardest – you need to complete that one to develop some momentum.

There are always distractions and diversions to prevent you achieving your goals and so your focus is incredibly important here. When you focus, you achieve more, with better quality results and are more likely to complete your goals on time.

CHALLENGE – STRETCH YOURSELF AND LEARN FROM EVERYTHING

The most exciting events in your life can happen when you move out of your comfort zone. You learn new things about yourself and about the world at large.

You have to make decisions you haven’t made before, often in unfamiliar surroundings or situations. In this territory failure is more likely as you learn to adapt but mentally tough peopleaccept that failure is part of your growth and self-improvement. You ‘win some, learn some’ and each failure or setback takes you closer to achieving your goal.

CONFIDENCE – BECOME CONFIDENT AND INFLUENTIAL

Confidence and self belief comes from different sources including from your capability and continual implementation of your skills and expertise. If you completed something successfully today you are more likely to feel confident about completing it successfully tomorrow. Practice makes perfect.

Another key source of confidence flows from adopting a positive and resilient mindset – the glass half full approach, much of this comes from managing your self talk. If you can think positively about yourself and the world you can have a significantly positive impact on the way you feel and act. This also has a positive impact on those around you.

In summary, using the MTQ48 mental toughness 4C’s framework can help you get out of a pickle or conversely burst out of the blocks.