All athletes at the top of their game have developed mental toughness, whether that is on or during a race, pushing through with training, trying to stay focused through tough times or working towards a goal or objective.
But how do you develop that strength…
The first point is focus and this is tricky especially if you suffer from things like low self-esteem, depression, anxiety and mental health issues, but you can do this. Focus of course on the goal ahead but factor in smaller goals along the way to keep you motivated and chipping away at the bigger prize at the end. Find a way to the end goal which can sometimes be a long way off and hard to focus on but smaller steps keep the focus….
See the past as information on how to get better and improve from where you were before and don’t dwell on what was previous. Mistakes, errors or losing doesn’t define you as an athlete but experiences will strengthen you for the future and you can use this info to better yourself. Nothing is wasted its all invaluable information in your development
Take a gamble and risk it all. If you don’t know and test yourself then how do you know where you are in the grand scheme of things. Like above it can give you a rain check on where you are or what you need to do to get better. Mentally tough athletes accept that they may miss the mark sometimes but its worth the risk to achieve greatness.
Strive to be excellent but not perfect. A mentally tough athlete knows that they will make mistakes along the way but they are focused on the long term goal not what is happening now. These are also important moments as it may mean that you change your journey path with your training program as what you are doing at this moment may not be working for you….
Don’t try to please others or resent someone else’s success either focus on yourself, your talents and improving yourself as well as implementing your game plan and achieving your laid out in front of you too….
Not all athletes are born with mental toughness of course some, faced with adversity battle through using that to focus on the goal at hand. You can work at it though and improve your mental toughness…If believe that you can do that then you are already on the right path to it becoming an important habit in your training arsenal……