Train your brain to toughness

Your brain consists of 86 billion neurons which form the basic building blocks for your nervous system. Your brain processes between 50 000 and 70 000 thoughts per day, which means between 35 and 48 thoughts per minute. If we take those 48 or so thoughts and add positive or negative emotions to them, do you think it will have an outcome on your behaviour?

If you are overweight and each time you eat food, you associate eating something to “being bad for you” or when you look in the bathroom mirror you notice your unwanted flab or perhaps every time you sit down, you associate the creaking chair to you being fat and overweight, what happens to you over time with the majority of your thoughts for the day pertain to your self-image are negative.

I have only given you one theme to think about, now multiply these negative thoughts to the pain exercise causes. You finish third place in a race, you are not able to afford the best shoes to run or the best carbon fibre bike to cycle. Once the majority of your thoughts start focusing on the negative, it would not be long before it is a learnt behaviour and everything you do will be looked at through a negative filtered lens.

Not for one moment am I not telling you to be a “care bear hugger” and “life is so amazing and so awesome and nothing can go wrong” type attitude, but we all know that “grumpy guy” and all wish he could lighten the hell up. The best change you can do in the world is by starting with yourself.

Mental toughness doesn’t come about one morning where you grin in the mirror, shout “Carpe Diem” and storm out the door like a determined madman. Mental toughness is practised every day and can be seen as learning a new craft. Your first attempt at anything will possibly be sub-average, but with practice you start to get better – not great, but better.

See training for mental toughness as a journey to be able to handle stress and situations on a higher level. The more skilled you are, the more stress you can handle, which really means the slower your stress levels rise in the face of ad- versity.

The mind is a powerful tool but it can also be a blob of jelly if you don’t seek to improve it through skills development. Yes, some people are better leaders, have calmer temperaments and more attracting personalities. The bottom line is, there is no time for negative thoughts, you already waste one of your 48 for the minute.

Strive to develop your knowledge and skills to help you see adversity as a challenge. A challenge, not negative, but something that you just have to get through no matter the cost. People who are mentally tough do indeed see the glass half full. Its time you do the same.