Mental strength has become somewhat of a buzzword in recent years. Many successful actors, entrepreneurs, and public speakers attribute their success to having mental resilience.
Some go so far as to say the right mindset is the key to success. However, developing mental strength seems just as difficult, if not even more challenging, than gaining physical strength.
How can the average individual develop personal resilience and what benefit does building resilience have on one’s everyday life and long-term goals?
In this article, we will address these questions and help you develop a personal strategy so you can start building mental toughness.
What is Mental Strength?
Having mental strength means being able to manage your unhealthy habits and perform your best regardless of the circumstances.
Mental strength is often associated with mental health, but these two terms are quite different. Mental resilience is the ability to deal with the stress and adversities of life.
As you can see, there are many aspects of resilience and there are a few other definitions of resilience. Other psychologists have proposed a slightly different definition.
Mental strength can be defined as the ability to overcome negative emotions and thoughts in an adaptive way. It’s a synonym for “mental resilience,” which means being able to deal with different types of stressors effectively, overcoming challenges in a healthy way, and having the capacity to adapt to an ever-changing environment.
People who are mentally strong or resilient can manage to function efficiently even during times of difficulty. They are strong-minded individuals who have the ability to live their lives to the fullest.
It is described as a flexible personality trait that allows individuals to deal with their own unique challenges while allowing their strengths to shine.
Mental strength combines anxiety control and personal development so individuals can tackle challenging times effectively and come out of difficult times as stronger person.
People with psychological resilience do not simply cope with their stressful life events but rather maintain a positive outlook on life regardless of their current situation.
15 Benefits of Being Mentally Strong
Since becoming mentally strong takes time and patience, here are the benefits of having mental strength:
- Increased life satisfaction.
- Greater productivity at work.
- Increase in persistence and patience.
- Find ways to address your sources of stress.
- Gaining an appreciation for life, both the positive and negative moments.
- Learn to evaluate the helpfulness of criticism and whether or not your coworkers are aligning their values with yours.
- Develop a positive self-image.
- Address your bad habits and overcome your desire to participate in unhelpful activities.
- Increase your level of confidence.
- Makes you more confident with calculated risks.
- Gives you an opportunity to learn about anxiety management.
- Provides you with the courage to face your fears and push beyond your boundaries.
- Helps you regulate your negative emotions.
- Keeps you motivated even when confronted with the challenges of life.
- Helps you explore new ways to learn from your mistakes.
Why is Mental Strength Important?
Mental and emotional strength is crucial for personal and career development. It provides a plethora of benefits to nearly all individuals and improves one’s mental health.
The amount of mental strength someone has is directly associated with their level of success later in life. Mentally strong people meet deadlines, are on time, and have better outcomes.
However, mental toughness is an important life skill for activities outside of work as well. Inevitably, all relationships will go through difficult times.
Mental toughness helps people build up stamina over time, so they can overcome such challenges without leaving their partners.
In fact, tough and confident people understand that the uncomfortable emotions associated with relationships are often temporary.
They create strategies to deal with this stress together with their partner and come out of difficult times as a stronger person. There are even more important reasons to focus on mental resilience.
For instance, mental strength gives people a better sense of well-being, improves positivity, assists in building positive mental habits, increases aspirations, and lowers one’s stress when subjected to a changing environment.
As you can see, toughness is important as it gives people a better chance of succeeding both in their careers and relationships.
How to Train & Develop Your Mental Strength
Being consistent is key for many activities. Anything from sports to career development requires consistently putting in the effort day in and day out. The same is true with strength development.
Negative ideas and a negative outlook on life are holding you back. You must overcome negativity to become stronger. One way to do this is to utilize SMART goals, which are both realistic and specific.
Once you do accomplish a goal, recognize the strengths that helped you succeed. Even before starting to build a tougher mindset, start to plan early on. Do not put yourself in an environment that sets you up for failure.
Consider whether or not you would continue buying alcohol if your goal is to quit drinking. Clearly, gaining the mental toughness to say ‘no’ to addiction starts by committing to putting yourself in the right environment.
However, simply occasionally going outside your comfort zone is not enough to build strength. Resilience is built through consistently pushing beyond your boundaries and challenging your limiting beliefs.
You do not have to overcome huge challenges daily, as it is the consistency that truly matters. Gaining mental strength will inevitably involve exposing yourself to unpleasant feelings from time to time. When you feel like you wish to give up, remind yourself of why you need to get stronger.
This way, you can become more confident in your mission and truly understand your end goal. Excuses will be your worst enemy.
Remember that if you do not meet a goal, you should evaluate why you did not succeed. This gives you an opportunity to look back on the task in detail and learn which strategies you could use in the future to achieve success.
Another crucial element of your mental strength development is understanding your end goal. A clear reason to continue your journey will help you stay productive and clear on which tasks to prioritize.
There will surely be days when you are less motivated and might consider throwing in the towel. There must be a powerful reason that keeps you going during dark times. Think of this motivating reason whenever you feel like quitting.
Importance of Mental Strength in Sports
Many individuals overlook the importance of mental toughness in sports. In actuality, mental strength is as important, if not more important, than physical skills in the sports world.
The world of sports is immensely emotional and filled with lots of highs and lows. Athletes need to be able to push through and address their negative feelings to move on instead of sulking in their negativity.
Mental strength helps individuals focus on the positive and address and analyze failure. Many athletes start to quit when faced with extreme challenges.
Mental toughness sets true athletes apart from the crowd, as they are able to push beyond their comfort zone to achieve more than what they believed was possible. In the long term, mentally strong athletes improve more and stay positive.
This positivity helps motivate the entire team, thus creating collective resilience in a sports team. Mental strength also allows individuals to maintain their calmness when faced with the immense pressure of professional sports.
Mentally tough athletes use a long-term perspective when it comes to analyzing their success. If they fail, they will focus on the big picture and continue pushing for their success. Weaker athletes may dwell on this failure and start thinking negatively.
Best Books on Mental Strength
In addition to quotes, books are another great way to keep yourself motivated throughout your strength development journey.
Some of the best books on mental strength are:
1. The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles – Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte Ph.D.
This book features a plethora of engaging, science-based exercises that help individuals develop their inner strength. The authors focus specifically on using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help increase your resilience.
You will first learn to assess your current resilience level and measure your level of confidence. Later, the authors discuss how to regulate emotions, address negative feedback, cope with adverse life events, embrace life, and achieve greater mental and physical health.
2. The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child – Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
Siegel and Bryson center this book around setting your children up for success. They share strategies on how to instill creativity, resilience, and passion into your kids.
Specifically, they address when children need to be pushed beyond their comfort zone and when they need to stay within their boundaries.
Additionally, they address multiple strategies for increasing a child’s positivity and steering them away from negative emotions. Overall, the book assists parents in instilling a creative mindset for their children.
3. The Power of the Other: The startling effect other people have on you, from the boardroom to the bedroom and beyond- and what to do about it – Henry Cloud
A New York Times bestselling author and leader in the field of resilience research, Dr. Henry Cloud uses his neuroscience knowledge and clinical experience, as well as personal experiences with business leaders, to teach readers about relationships.
He explains how such relations are a key resource for personal growth, but they can be equally detrimental if not utilized properly. Dr. Cloud makes a clear point throughout this book: choose your relationships wisely.
Mental Strength FAQ
What is strong mental strength?
Having strong mental health means being a resilient person who’s capable of finding the sources of their stress, dealing with them effectively, and developing adaptive and functional coping mechanisms.
Strong mental health is the ability to face challenges without stressing too much, being comfortable with your own mistakes, and finding ways to learn from your mistakes in order to grow as a person.
How do I get mental strength?
In order to get mental strength, you need to overcome negativity and understand that it’s okay to make mistakes. However, you should also realize that you should use your mistakes in order to learn, grow, and avoid making the same mistakes again in the future.
Becoming mentally strong also means developing healthy and adaptive coping strategies. For this, sometimes you need to expose yourself to challenges and critical situations and see what makes you feel good or bad in these situations.
As a result, you can develop productive coping strategies such as problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, social support, or meaning-making.
