“How Tough Are You Willing To Be?”

Grit (N): Courage and Resolve; strength of character

Earlier this week, I challenged myself to write 300 articles this year. Before I set this goal, my brain attempted to talk me out of it. Questioning my ability to write 300 original pieces without repeating myself, led me to the topic of discussion. “How tough are you willing to be?” Mental toughness is not only a skill that is perfected through practice but it is living proof that you are destined for greatness.

When you think about the benefits of being mentally tough, it is rooted in the ability to be consistently optimistic. Even on the days where you don’t feel like it, it is a key element into creating the life we want to live. We are going to be challenged throughout our journey to entrepreneurship and our personal journey, learning to be mentally tough is what separates the boys/girls from the Men/Women.

While there are many other attributes that mentally tough people have, these 6 are the foundation to the rest of them:

1. self-aware
2. Display consistent optimism
3. Confident in ourselves
4. Understanding the importance of Emotional intelligence
5. Commitment to the process and bettering yourself
6. Resilience to push through hard times

To be self-aware means to understand our bodies, our thoughts, our emotions, our triggers, our motivators and so on. Also known as being mindful, it is very important that we keep track of where we are, how we feel, our responses, our abilities and etc. When we are self-aware, we are grateful for our talents and who we are. We are the best version of ourselves and when this happens, we begin to have a positive outlook on life.

When we have a positive program running in our brain, we begin to view life through the lens of optimism. The old saying says, “when you’re looking for something, you usually find something.” Life works the exact same way. We begin to look for the great things to happen. We begin to envision our future down to the style of carpet we want in our dream home, we begin to unlock our magnetic powers. Combine hard work with a vision……. Sheeesh.

When we earn the optimism badge, we begin to gain our confidence back. We remember who we are, we remind ourselves of what we bring to the table and we set out to complete (to what some call) “the impossible.” Being mentally tough requires confidence because you won’t always be the top dog in the room. You won’t always be the smartest, fastest, strongest in the room, but when we are confident in what we bring to the table, our skill set speaks for themselves.

Along with confidence in ourselves comes the ability to become emotionally intelligent. By being emotionally intelligent, you are monitoring your feelings and responses. We are keeping track of how you verbally respond when things go wrong and transition from negative self talk to positive. We will begin to speak life into any situation because we understand some things are out of our control. Trusting in the unseen and having faith that things will work out will attract scenarios of success.

By controlling our responses to the adversities of life, we commit to the process. We don’t look up and see how far we have left, we don’t look at the clock to see when it’s time to call it a day. We get comfortable in our creative zones, we set the mood for our self care routine and we handle business. One of my favorite memes is the two guys digging through dirt trying to reach the diamond. One dude was close to the goal and he stopped. The other guy in the bag was digging away.

In 2023, we are not giving up. This year we are pushing through the finish line. Every day is not going to be easy. There will be days when the road is foggy and you can’t see away out. By having resilience, we understand that slow steps are better than no steps. By continuing to remain calm and trusting the process, we are learning from the lessons that we need to learn and are applying the lessons. Doing this allows us to push through anything that comes our way.

The mountain is lonely at the top because other people on their journey gave up. If carrying out those 6 traits was easy, we would not be one button push away from the apocalypse. We have to be mentally tough to go through life. There’s going to be days when we are tired and want to stop. Don’t stop. Search for the positives in our situations and work with what we have. Some days you will have to scramble out of the pocket and improvise, but when we are in our bag, we know we can not and will not be stopped.

How mentally tough are we willing to be to see our dreams come to fruition? How many scrapes and bruises will we earn along the way before we realize that we’ve been through shit before and we came out better than we went in? We’ve taken the risk for our dreams and they begin to pay off in ways we didn’t imagine. Stay the course. Keep going. Remember those 6 traits and let’s start to exercise our natural born right to evolve internally. Focus on your vision. Give yourself some grace. Evolve from the victim to the victor. Let’s get in our bag and get it done.

“Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory" — Bill Russell

• SB