Why mental resilience is a muscle that can be developed

Mental resilience is a muscle that can be developed regularly, and by the so-called average man and woman on the street.

Studies say that inner toughness, determination, and persistence are not unique to the handful of high achievers who have used them to reach stellar levels of success in the world. It is available to anyone who wants to make a habit out of it to achieve their own objectives. What set apart the winners apart is that they learned to shape this behavior, keep at it relentlessly, and train themselves to determined and mentally strong.

Mental toughness is vital to success because it means working towards one’s goal steadfastly despite very difficult challenges and circumstances. It means having extreme confidence in one’s self and their purpose despite an abundance of naysayers and their criticism. It means remaining positive and realistically optimistic despite experiencing several failures.

Inc shows how the ordinary person can become mentally resilient by continual discipline and making that one decision not to give up—and stand by it. Guest columnist Jeff Haden was able to perform a measly eight push-ups a day to a seemingly impossible 5,000. He explains this was because his house guest, who is a Navy SEAL officer, kept prodding him to try. There were no if’s and but’s. He went down on the floor to do the push-ups. 

As Haden recalls, just doing the exercise out of sheer will despite his body fatigue and emotional discouragement helped him build the confidence to do more and more pushups. The one principle he took away from the experience is that the human being always has infinite resources within himself he can tap into–even though his tired mind and body were telling him to quit.

A related report on mental resilience by Entrepreneur affirms that mental toughness does start with an act of discipline every single day. Mindfulness, done through meditation, helps one focus on the things he has to do for that day and follow through, regardless of the problems that may arise. Another discipline that must be exercised is the willingness to leave one’s personal comfort zone and try something different that will challenge their inner and physical resilience.

Doing these exercises every day will strengthen their internal backbone, sharpen their mind, and increase their confidence to a point that can weather and prevail against discouragement.