Life can be really tough, but you can be even tougher than that.
You can either allow the adversities and circumstances in your life to get the better of you, or you can choose to use them to help you get better.
Your choice.
Here’s 12 ways to unleash the mental juggernaut in you.
1. Don’t try to hide your weakness
Nobody’s perfect yet many people go around with a mask and put up a facade for what/who they want others to see them as. It might work for a while, but give it time and one’s true colours will be revealed.
There’s a time to be diplomatic about things and there’s also a time to be brutally honest about matters.
If you are weak in a certain area, don’t put up a front and stop acting as if it doesn’t exist. Do something to either improve it or get someone else to do it.
2. Learn from your mistakes
It’s alright to make mistakes – if fact, make more of them because they are great teachers. We tend to learn more from our mistakes and failures than from our successes.
And learn from them so that you won’t make the same mistakes in the future.
3. Balance contentment with improvement
It’s important to be thankful and content with whatever you have right now – you have come a long way to reach where you are at presently. On the other side of the coin, it’s also important to ensure that you are constantly seeking ways to improve yourself and the way you do things.
The balance between contentment and improvement is crucial.
4. Face and embrace your fears
Your fears are only as scary as you allow them to be.
Also, most fears are over-exaggerated.
Acknowledge your fears and do whatever you can to manage it. Most importantly, go ahead with your plans and take action despite feeling the fear.
5. Celebrate the successes of others
Stop being obsessed about your name, empire and reputation.
Instead, seek to build others up and to invest in the lives around you.
Celebrate their successes and be there for them during their failures. You can choose to be the bigger person who is there for others when they are in need.
6. Be on the offensive. Don’t wait for things to happen.
You can either wait for things to happen or you could make things happen.
Be the initiator. Be the proactive one.
If you feel there’s an issue in the business, be the (first) one who goes and speak to the manager, instead of waiting for the manager to ask everyone else if things are okay.
Need to make a call? Do it.
Need to have a conversation with someone? Do it.
Need to let go of something? Do it.
7. Balance emotion with logic
It’s easy to be emotional during intense moments like unexpected circumstances, times of change, crises and adversity.
Don’t make decisions based solely on emotions. Take a step back and detach yourself from the situation momentarily, assess your options and make the decisions with both emotion and logic.
8. Stand your ground
There are times when you need to say yes to the opportunities that come your way.
There are also times when you need to say no to things which detract you from your goals.
Friends partying tonight when you will be working out early the next morning and having an important presentation after that? Turn down the offer, resist the urge to bend under (peer) pressure and go do what you need to do. Better to feel the pain of rejecting others at that time of decision making than to feel the pain of regret from succumbing to pressure.
9. Express gratitude
Don’t take anything or anyone for granted. Give thanks in all circumstances.
If you have been touched, blessed, inspired or encouraged by someone, express your gratitude to him or her. If you are comfortable sending an email, try sending a personalised text. If you are comfortable sending a text, try giving him or her a phone call. If you are comfortable giving a phone call, try buying him or her dinner.
10. Take action
It’s one thing to talk about your dreams and aspirations. It’s another to actually take action to make them happen.
Too many people just love talking about things. That’s why talk is easy and cheap – and anyone can do it.
What sets you apart is your drive to take action despite the cynicism, skepticism, negativity, resistance and challenges around you. And champions don’t stop when they are tired – they stop when they are done.
11. Get feedback
Get honest, critical and constructive feedback from those who care for you. These are the people who would tell you the things you need to hear, rather than the things you want to hear.
12. Step out of your comfort zone
Get comfortable being uncomfortable. The best opportunities lie outside our comfort zones. The most dangerous place in the world is in the safety of our comfort zones.
I know, it’s important to rest, recover and recuperate, but there’s also a time to get back into the fray.
There’s a time for a supercar to stay in the workshop to be serviced, but it shouldn’t spend all it’s time there because it was made to conquer the roads out there.
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
When was the last time you did something so difficult and uncomfortable, but was so fruitful and fulfilling after?
When was the last time you did something so scary, but you realised you already had what it takes to conquer the fear?
So get out there and get things going. An exciting world awaits you!