Championship Mindset Series: Building Mental Toughness

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Mental toughness is an important trait when it comes to overcoming adversity and persevering to the finish line.

It is the self-control to maintain discipline and persevere through challenges.

But what does it mean to be mentally tough?

How can we become more mentally tough?

The Science

There is a connection in the brain that creates traits like mental toughness, discipline, and self-control. These areas are the anterior cingulate cortex and the corona radiata. The degree of self-control and discipline a person has is determined by the number of connections between these two areas. More connections = more self-control.

How to Build Mental Toughness

Some people naturally have a high number of connections and thus are innately tough. For the rest of us, it is possible to increase our number of connections and improve our mental toughness with specific training for less than twenty minutes a day.

This specific training is called integrative mind-body training. To do this, a person must intentionally bring their awareness to their body’s discomfort and choose to persevere instead of retreat.

Over time, the number of connections between the anterior cingulate cortex and corona radiata increases through practicing self-control in this way. In less than 20 minutes per day, you can successfully build mental toughness and improve your self-control.

Applying Integrative Mind-Body Training

By making ourselves uncomfortable in normal day-to-day situations, we can build up mental toughness for when we really need it.

Take the stairs, park your car farther away, take a cold shower.

We can build mental toughness with almost everything we do.

Practice being tough for the small things so you can be tough for the real struggles.