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Developing Warrior Like Mental Toughness – 11 Easy Steps

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how to develop mental toughness
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Success in any pursuit requires a mentally tough mind. You can have all the resources, but if your mind is a mess, you will fail. I’ve become obsessed with the mind and have tried everything to stack the odds in my favor.

I’ve spent four years training my brain every day to make it see what I want it to see. What do I want my brain to see and hopefully yours too? All the abundance, positivity, and happiness in this world. I want to have less negative thoughts and be driven by my higher self rather than by fear.

No longer do I want the traditional media outlets to poison my brain with their bad news dopamine hits. I’ve made a pact never to be defeated by any event in my life no matter how tragic or horrible it may seem. Deep down, you want the same thing as me, and that requires mental toughness.

It’s time to become like an ancient warrior. It’s time to build resilience that will help you get through even the coldest winter. It’s time to take the game of life to the next level and learn the hidden super power that is a warrior like mental toughness. Are you with me soldier?

***It’s all about discipline

Mental toughness boils down to one thing: discipline. You can make any change you want to your mindset and the way you think, with discipline. Discipline is about not letting the small stuff topple over your tower of happiness.

To have an abundance of mental toughness you have to make a decision. That decision is that you have to decide to be in control. That means not letting events control you but making sure that you decide what those events mean for yourself.

Apart from a decision, mental toughness is about practice. It’s about becoming conscious of your thoughts and then getting the best out of them.

“Fear is our default programming, so if we don’t use discipline to stay in control, then we will fall to the lowest common denominator: negative thoughts, fuelled by either anxiety or depression”

Discipline is about no longer settling for second best. It’s about choosing to the right decisions which you already intuitively know the answer to. You know you should work before play, eat healthy, exercise, do what you love, and treat people with love and kindness.

You know all of these things, yet you don’t do them when you lack discipline. The best way to always come from a state of discipline is to tie it to your purpose. You need to have a life quest that is more important than anything else in your life.

Then, when you have a decision to make that requires discipline, remind yourself of your purpose, and tell your brain that you will fail at your purpose if you are not disciplined. By linking the outcome of your purpose to discipline, you rewire your brain to make the best decisions for you. It gives you leverage over your brain to rig the game in your favor.

Here are the 11 easy steps to develop mental toughness:

1. Go one step further

Mental toughness can be developed by going one step further than you believe is possible. If you can currently do 10 chin-ups, try next time for eleven. If you currently drink two liters of water a day try two and a half tomorrow. If you are doing 8000 steps a day, try 8500 tomorrow.

The secret is to go one small step beyond what you mentally believe you can do. Each day, keep taking another small step, and before you know it, you’ll be progressing further towards your goals that you ever have before.

2. Convince yourself things will go wrong

If you need to prepare for a big goal or event, then you can become mentally tough by telling yourself right from the start that stuff will go wrong. Instead of hoping for everything to be perfect, hope for everything to be mostly good and know that at least one thing will go wrong.

Perfection is a quick way to destroy your mental toughness because nothing is ever exactly how we want it to be. Perfection is how we sabotage our success and veer off track from our goals. Expect a bit of failure in everything you do and then if you get none, you’ll be even happier with yourself.

3. Sleep on negative emotions

So everything goes to hell and hits the fan. That’s cool. As the negative emotions build up in your mind, tell yourself you are going to let them all out except with one catch: sleep on them and commit to doing it tomorrow.

This little hack allows you to become mentally tough because it delays your negative emotional reaction to any circumstance in your life. Rather than getting caught up in the moment, you delay reacting till later. Chances are, if you’re like me, by the time you wake up the next day, the impact of those negative emotions has subsided.

4. Always see Mr. Brightside

When tragedy strikes (and it will), commit to finding at least one thing that’s good about it. Before spending even a second on the negative side, I want you to find at least one positive thought about the situation. It can be as small as you like as long as it’s positive.

By starting with the positive, you develop the mental toughness to find our friend Mr. Brightside in everything that happens. Prioritize positive thoughts, and do your best to make negative thoughts secondary in terms of priority. You won’t always win at this game, but that’s okay. We’re not looking for perfection remember?

5. Focus on a goal, not a dream

One of the attributes of mental toughness is focus. It’s diverting all your mental energy towards one thing and being tough enough not to give up. What I learned from Tim Ferris’s podcast is that if you want to be mentally tough at something, you must make this task a goal, not a dream.

A goal is clearly articulated, has planning involved, comes with a deadline, and typically has some accountability from someone other than you. A dream is a nice to have, but it’s much vaguer. The brain needs things to be told to it in a clear manner and for it to be very specific in order to enable your mental toughness, focus your thoughts, and force you never to give up and execute on your plan.

6. Are you okay with pain?

You can’t be mentally tough without experiencing pain full stop. Pain is guaranteed if you want to be mentally tough; whether you suffer from that pain is your choice. If you’re going to stay in your womb of a comfort zone and refuse to have any pain, then pal, you’re not going to be mentally tough, successful, wealthy and probably happy either. Being mentally tough is your choice!

7. Break the comfort zone regularly

I live in freezing cold Melbourne, Australia. There’s nothing better than having a nice warm shower every morning to wake me up and make me feel comfortable. WRONG!

To develop my mental toughness I’ve decided to start taking cold showers. That’s right, I blast myself with freezing cold water every day to program my mind to be uncomfortable at least once a day. Slowly but surely, my mind and my body are starting to get used to the discomfort.

It’s these small habits of discomfort that give you the warrior-like way of thinking that can help you succeed in even the most impossible endeavors.

8. The brain only has no much fuel

What sabotages our mental toughness is our brains mental energy. Just like a car, we only have so much fuel before we’re running on empty. The quickest way to lose your mental toughness is to waste your brains fuel on problems that you can’t solve, or negative thoughts that don’t serve you.

Negative thoughts consume twice the brain fuel and give you zero progress towards your goals. Every time you react to a situation, you’re also wasting mental fuel. If that situation doesn’t serve you (like beeping your horn at a motorist), then do what is hard at the start and become more disciplined.

Use your mental energy to inspire you and propel you forward. You’re not stupid, and you know what thoughts serve you, and what thoughts do not. If you find yourself always drowning in negative thoughts and running on empty then maybe it’s the people around you.

Recalibrate your mind, refuel your mind, and practice some personal development. Feed your mind through books and seminars. Give your mind the nutrients it needs through fresh fruit and vegetables or my favorite, a green juice.

9. Prepare the mind

Practicing your craft allows you to be mentally tough in the moment. When you’ve done the same thing over and over, you’re less likely to fail (this is so obvious I shouldn’t even have to say it). When I’m preparing for a speech, I read it dozens of times. By the time speech day comes, I feel mentally tough because my mind is prepared and knows what it has to do.

The mind becomes weak when it’s required to perform at an extraordinary level and has never had to endure this type of struggle before. Think of it like this: you’d build the muscle first before you entered a weightlifting competition wouldn’t you? The mind is no different.

10. Limit distractions

The quickest way to lose your mental toughness is to become at the mercy of distractions. I’m talking about technology. You can’t be mentally tough when your phone keeps ringing, buzzing, or flashing. Turn the freaking social media notifications off, and sit down and work on your craft in a focused, mindful, silence.

11. Believe you can win

Mentally tough champions think slightly different; they show up to any competition or task with the belief that they can win. You can have all the positive thoughts in the world, but if you don’t believe you have it in you to win, then you’re going to flunk out of the race.

“Believing you can win is more crucial than how you perform on the day”

It’s your mentally strong mind that can push through the inevitable pain to get you where you want to go. If every other part of you is prepared to achieve the impossible and your mind isn’t, again, you will fail at your goal.

How do you practice becoming mentally tough? Let me know on my website timdenning.net or my Facebook.

DON’T FORGET: You can Join Joel Brown’s Monthly Mindset Coaching Program today to build your Mental Strength

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Success Advice

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How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

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In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be. 

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time. 

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.

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