The Mental Toughness Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Facing Life's Challenges, Managing Negative Emotions, and Overcoming Adversity with Courage and Poise

by Damon Zahariades

Mental toughness requires that you be flexible to your circumstances. When things go wrong, you must be able to adapt in order to act with purpose. Most of us dread change. We enjoy predictability because it reduces uncertainty. Fear of uncertainty is one of the chief impediments to taking purposeful action. Building this habit entails leaving your comfort zone. It calls for actively seeking changes that you can incorporate into your life. The upside is that doing so will desensitize ...

Confidence Springs from Ability

Confidence is an expectation that we can prevail over difficult, uncomfortable situations. This self-trust stems, in part, from our abilities, which are comprised of our knowledge base, talents, and areas of proficiency. We’re confident when we feel prepared for our circumstances.

Confidence also stems from our ability to adapt. Talent and expertise aren’t enough. We must be able to pivot when necessary.

Sometimes, our confidence levels move out of alignment with our abilities, knowledge, and readiness to adapt to changing conditions. When this happens, it’s important that we evaluate ourselves and realign our confidence levels with reality.

If we’re overconfident, we might be inclined to take excessive risks, dismiss others’ opinions, and ignore our weaknesses. When we confront setbacks and challenges with this frame of mind, we risk being unprepared regardless of our courage.

If we’re under-confident, we may avoid taking risks, allow others’ opinions to control us, and perceive our weaknesses as a harbinger of certain defeat. With this frame of mind, we’ll be hesita...

It’s difficult to be mentally strong when our confidence levels are unrealistic. Both arrogance and unjustified self-doubt are the enemies of cognitive resilience and resolve. Arrogance might sustain us in the short term, but will lead us off course over the long run. Unjustified self-doubt may ...

Given the potential pitfalls of harboring unrealistic confidence levels, it’s important to perform a periodic self-assessment. Ask yourself: “Are my confidence levels reasonable given m...