What Is Mental Strength?
First, we need to define what mental strength is, before we speak about the ways to build and improve it.
- Mental strength is the ability to make decisions and choices and stick with them.
- It is the ability to focus your mind on your actions and on your goals.
- Mental strength manifests as discipline and inner strength, and as the ability to hold on to your opinions, even if other people think differently.
- Mental strength means knowing when you need to be tough with yourself, leave your comfort zone, and not give in to laziness and procrastination.
- Mental strength means acknowledging and being aware of your strengths and weaknesses, skills and lack of skills. It also means not afraid or shy to seek knowledge, information and help when you need them.
If you feel that you lack mental strength, you can learn how to strengthen and improve it. You can develop mental toughness and strength. This article can help you make the first steps in the process of building mental strength.
Building mental strength and mental endurance are within your reach. Small steps and simple actions would gradually develop and build them up. Just be a little patient and follow the necessary steps.
How to Build Mental Strength
Here are a few steps for increasing mental strength.
Doubts and disbelief are like brakes that do not allow you to move forward. You need to release your doubts and lack of belief in yourself. This would be like releasing the brakes and moving forward.
Have faith in yourself, even if you failed in the past. If doubts rise in your mind, refuse to listen to them, and replace them with positive thoughts. An excellent way of replacing doubts and negative thoughts with positive thoughts is repeating positive affirmations. Do so, whenever doubts, disbelief and negativity start filling your mind.
When you need to make a decision or a choice examine the facts, use your common sense, and listen to your intuition. However, avoid overthinking and do not spend too much time pondering what to decide and what to choose. Many of the decisions and choices that we make every day are about simple and not very important matters, and we therefore, do not need to spend too much time on them.
Of course, if you need to make a major decision or choice, which can have a great effect on your life, you will need to spend more time thinking, than when making small every day decisions.
Sometimes, we need to go through discomfort, in order to succeed. If we shun discomfort, and always choose the effortless way, we might not achieve anything.
When we study, want to lose weight, develop a new skill, progress in our job or earn more money, we often need to go through some discomfort, do things we do not like doing and make an effort. We need to pay some price if we want to achieve success. The price is leaving our comfort zone and do things that we usually prefer to avoid, and which require effort, time, discipline and assertiveness.
The more you tolerate discomfort and do not avoid it, the stronger and more confident you become.
Focus on what you want to achieve. This could be a small and minor goal or something big. You build mental strength when you focus on your goal. A person who constantly changes goals and aims lacks mental strength and endurance and find it difficult to achieve anything.
Set simple, realistic, and short-term goals that are not difficult to achieve. Achieving them would increase your confidence, faith in yourself, and of course, your mental strength. Proving that you can achieve these goals would make it easier to achieve bigger goals.
Everyone encounters situations that require willpower and discipline. You have the choice of giving up due to lack of these skills, and you may strive to display them.
The more willpower and discipline you display the more mental strength you get. You will gain more and become stronger if you step out of your comfort zone and do not avoid discomfort and effort.
At least once a day, do something that requires willpower and self-discipline. You can find plenty of opportunities for exercising these skills. If you are earnest about developing these skills, I recommend that you read and practice the exercises in my book Strengthen Your Willpower and Self discipline. You can find there simple, but powerful exercises, which you can practice at any time or place.
Two of the characteristic of mental strength are confidence and the lack of fear to make changes in your life. Most people tend to stick to the familiar and are afraid of changes. However, in order to improve any aspect of your life you need to make changes in your life.
Decide what you want to change, think of the benefits, and imagine how your life would look if you make the necessary changes. This will give you motivation and confidence.
Every positive change you make in your life would improve and build up your confidence, self-esteem and inner strength, and consequently, your mental strength would increase.
You improve your mental strength when you welcome changes and are not afraid of them.
As you see, you can build and increase your mental strength, and this is not a difficult thing to do. As you build and increase your mental strength, you also build and increase your endurance, focus and inner strength.
Positive Affirmations for Strength
“I have the strength for anything I need to do.”
“My inner strength is growing day by day.”
“I have the mental strength to learn, study and improve my life.”
“I find every day new and good ways to increase my mental strength.”
Mental Strength Quotes
“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.”
– William Jennings Bryan
“It is confidence in our bodies, minds, and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures.”
– Oprah Winfrey
It takes energy, mental toughness and spiritual reinforcement to successfully deal with life’s opportunities, and to reach your objectives.”
– Zig Ziglar
“It’s when the discomfort strikes that they realize a strong mind is the most powerful weapon of all.”
– Chrissie Wellington
