Mental Toughness

Although this article does not really fit the theme of this blog, I honestly believe it is well worth a mention. Last week I attended a workshop on Mental Toughness by Dr. Steve Bull (consultant psychologist to the England cricket team). Undoubtedly, it was one of the best workshops I have attended. In his workshop Dr. Bull explained how a series of extremely simple and common sense techniques can help an individual develop mental toughness and thereby improve his overall performance (personal and professional). He refers to this as Performance Psychology. Mental toughness is divided into four categories:

1. Turnaround Toughness: The ability to bounce back from adversity and setbacks.
2. Critical Moment Toughness: The ability to execute a performance at a specific time when under pressure.  
3. Endurance Toughness: The ability to stay physically strong and mentally focused during times of excessive stress and relentless workaround commitments.  
4. Risk management Toughness: The ability to take tough decisions and calculated risks to maximize performance instead of playing safe and always staying in your comfort zone.

Tips to improve Turnaround Toughness

1. Focus on personal achievements
2. Learn from experiences, forgive, and move on
3. Be optimistic (always look for positives)

Tips to improve Critical Moment Toughness

1. Control the elements under your control (rather than attempting to control elements that are beyond your control)
2. Always see and think success
3. Don’t think about DON’T (i.e think about what you should be doing in the critical moment rather than what you should not be doing)

Tips to improve Endurance Toughness

1. Manage your energy (physical activity, diet & nutrition, and relaxation)
2. Manage your outlook (be optimistic, lookout for daily highlights, have a perspective)