Are you mentally tough enough to succeed?
Many people suffer from a lack of mental toughness. They just don’t possess the psychological and emotional tenacity to be successful.
Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” There is some truth to this. If you want to live a great life, you have to get up every day and do what it takes to succeed.
When you lack mental toughness, you fail to show up. You fail to give life 100 percent. You hide from the challenges that, if conquered, will make you successful.
We have to learn to recognize a lack of mental toughness in ourselves and to overcome it if we truly want to live the best life possible.
The Signs You Lack Mental Toughness
There are some telltale signs that you lack the toughness necessary to plow through life’s challenges to get to the other side. You can use these to evaluate yourself and determine if you need to strengthen your commitment to success.
Here are five signs you lack mental toughness:
1. You Give Up Too Easily
This one seems pretty obvious, but it still needs to be stated. A lack perseverance and persistence is a plain sign that you are suffering from mental weakness. Albert Einstein said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Success often comes to those you persist where others give up. You may have to back up and attack from a different angle to succeed, but many issues are overcome by a simple will to make it so.
You need to look back over your life to evaluate how well you’ve stuck to the difficult things that have come up. Do you throw in the towel when things get a little uncomfortable or do you press on even when success is questionable?
2. You Whine and Complain
If you often find yourself whining and complaining when you face a difficult change or a stubborn obstacle, then you probably lack mental toughness. Moaning about the situation does absolutely nothing to help. It just tears down your resolve and fills you and those around you with negativity. If you think something is going to be a problem, then it certainly will be. On the other hand, a positive attitude even in the face of adversity has helped many successful people get to where they are.
Do you whine and complain when the going gets tough? If so, then you need to toughen up mentally. You need to steel your mind against these cracks in your optimism. You need to stop making yourself and others miserable and start believing you can overcome anything!
3. You Procrastinate and Are Lazy
Procrastination and laziness are sure signs of a lack of mental strength. Successful people will not let these cancers take control of their lives. They force themselves to get up off the couch to make one more sales call or to turn off the television so they can read one more idea that might catapult them to the next level. Our lizard brains will tell us to sit still, but success comes from taking positive action.
Do you put off the things you know you need to do? Do you spend too much time watching sports on the weekends instead of working on your dream? If so, then you lack mental strength. Toughen up your thinking by learning to overcome these weaknesses.
4. You Have Emotional Breakdowns
Emotional breakdowns can be found at either extreme. If you are mentally weak, you may breakdown by crying your eyes out or you may explode in fits of rage. Either way, you are giving in to your weakness and engaging in self-defeating behavior. I know that sometimes, if you are so inclined, that you may need to let the steam off, but you have to do this in private and in a way that doesn’t hurt others. Most often, you need team members to help you climb your way to success, but people won’t follow someone that is susceptible to emotional breakdowns. They will either think you are too weak or too volatile.
Do you regularly exhibit either of the emotional breakdowns mentioned above? If so, then you are mentally weak and need to get control of your emotions. You are hurting your chances for success by letting your emotions run wild. When you get control of yourself, you will find that success comes much easier.
5. You Blame Others
Finally, you lack mental toughness if you fail to accept personal responsibility for your life. Blaming others for your lack of success is definitely a weakness. You are the only one that can bring success to your life. You have to take charge and make it happen. Blaming others is a convenient crutch used to deflect the blame off ourselves. We have to be mentally tough enough to accept responsibility for the circumstances of our lives and to do something to get what we want.
If you are in a bad situation, then I’m not saying you have to accept responsibility for the bad behavior of others. I’m saying that you need to be responsible for yourself and get out of there. Do you blame others for the failures in your life? If so, then draw a line in the sand right now. From this point forward, commit yourself to taking the action necessary to improve your life.
Be Mentally Tough Enough to Live a Great Life
Having a heaping helping of determination and tenacity are crucial to living a great life. This requires some mental toughness. If any of the signs above ring true to you, then you have some work to do. The good news is that you can immediately resolve to do better. You can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and start making a difference today. Don’t wallow in your weakness any longer! Get mentally tough and live a great life.
