We all dream of getting stronger and better, but many people interpret it in a different way and sometimes take the wrong steps, which waste their precious time and sometimes mislead them. If I have to conclude what I have learned about mental toughness in one line, there is a golden rule for mental toughness.
“The more difficult things you do, the stronger you get.”
Or you can follow this quote, which says
“If you want what nobody has, then you must do what no one is willing to”.
I recently read a book called “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins (Read my top learnings from the book) in which he talks about mental strength and its relation to our daily life and other things. He says that mental toughness is not a thing which you can fake or temporarily get. It is a whole different lifestyle where you have to make daily difficult choices that make you stronger.
But this daily was stuck in my mind for a long time with a basic question: “How can a person make daily difficult choices?” For me, it was not practically possible. So as usual, I got on my laptop and spent hours and hours reading and researching about the daily habits that make a person stronger. And I came up with a total of nine daily habits which help you build a hard-headed lifestyle.
9 daily habits to get stronger (mentally & physically)
Be honest and listen to the truth.
“Honesty is the best policy.”
This is one of those quotes that were said a long time ago, but they are still practical in this modern world. Truth always hurts, and it is difficult to stay truthful because you have to suffer a lot of rejection. The truth is always difficult to listen to and digest, but the lie is much easier to listen to and digest.
For example, if you draw a drawing and ask any person to review it, then the person has 2 choices: either he/she should tell you the truth that “you need to improve” or just say “beautiful” and believe me, maximum time you will get a second reply, very few people who genuinely want you to grow and accomplish the goal in your life will tell you the truth.
Write your short-term goals and long-term goals.
Write your short-term and long-term goals in your journal and remind yourself so that you do not get distracted. If you have the habit of writing your ideas and goals in your journal, you are not likely to get distracted from your main goal and you will work on it daily.
Whenever you achieve one of them and cut it in your journal, you will feel a dopamine boost, which will encourage you to achieve more, work harder, and make your manifestations come true.
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
I get up 10 minutes earlier every day.
Waking up early is difficult, and the number one rule for mental toughness is to select the most difficult path, the path of resistance. The more resistance you go through, the better you will become.
The first step is to select a goal for your journey. Let’s say you set a goal to wake up every day at 4:00. By daily means, regularly, it’s not necessary to decrease the time every day. It can be a week and it can be as lenient as a month too.
“Growth matters, pace doesn’t.”
I workout every day.
A “healthy body has a healthy mind”. If you are healthy, you can work towards your goals. By “workout,” I am not telling you to do just one thing. It can be anything. It can be a sport you like, or it can be as easy as a morning jog or a walk too.
You don’t have to be good to play that sport. You just like to play that sport. That’s enough for you. I am just asking you to do some sort of physical activity.
Disclaimer: these paragraphs below are not for normal people. They are for warriors, those who aim to be the strongest, not the strongest.
If you ask me about my workout (specifically jogging/running), it has taught me lessons that I would not have learned in the most expensive schools.The power of mental resistance How many times can you resist the urge to give up and simply sit on the chair in front of you?You have to deal with lots of physical and mental pain, which will make you much stronger in both ways, physically and mentally.
Photo by Edgar Chaparro on Unsplash
Switch off your phone.
There is no doubt that the phone is one of the most distracting things of all. For a razor-sharp focus, you maybe don’t need a silent room, but you have to put your phone away from you. It’s better if you don’t put it in the room too.
The best thing is to schedule on your phone when it should automatically switch off and on. Whenever you are done with your work, you can turn it on. Maybe one of you will think that you can’t shut down your phone because you got an “important” message or call, and it was with me too, but believe me, there is nothing important on your phone. You can just try it once, and I bet you will see an instant boost in your productivity level.
Do the difficult thing first.
What if someone asks you to eat a dirty, sticky, stinking frog? You cannot skip it. You have to eat it on the same day, but you have the freedom to have it any time you want to. Many of you will say that you will eat it in the afternoon. Some will say in the evening. Some will say at night, but the best time to eat that frog will be in the morning.
This is because you have already finished your difficult task of the day. Now the things which are left are very easy for you to accomplish. Other than this, you have completed the most difficult task of the day, so you will get an instant boost of motivation and you will be able to push yourself.
Likely, you should complete your most difficult task first, then you should go further and the rest of the tasks will be easy for you.
Do something you don’t like.
Do something you don’t like at regular intervals. For example, I don’t like to work after my lunch. It is very difficult for me to work. I need to have a power nap. But recently, I found a way to change this habit by working on my articles after my lunch with a cup of coffee. After some time, I will try this habit with green tea and after that with just hot water.
Here I selected a task which I don’t like to do regularly. This exercise will challenge my resistance power (which is already high because of lots of sports experience). But you can also use it to enhance your resistance power. Doing something you don’t like has lots of benefits, which can be covered in another article.
Cold shower
If I ask you to have a cold shower when it is 15° Celsius outside, what will you do? If you really want to get stronger, you should follow the quote below:
“You just have to pick the most difficult road and you will get stronger.”
Numerous studies have already proven that cold showers are good for your body, including your heart and nervous system health. But if you ask me, I am not asking you to have these showers because of these health benefits. I want you to do it to train your mind, to train your resistance power, to train your mind to stay in a constant discomfort zone. Not every individual is having cold showers on a cold morning, and that’s why you are better than they are. That’s also why you are stronger than they are. Making your discomfort zone your comfort zone is the goal of all these habits. The day you are uncomfortable when you are comfortable is when you know you are successful.
Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash
Own your decisions, even if they are wrong.
When everything is going all right, your decisions are correct and you are at the top, then you will get support from every person around you.
But the main thing is that when you start to lose or when you fail, then, believe me, every person around you will somehow prove that you are wrong and you cannot do anything in your life. You are wasting your life and your time.
But the quality of a mentally strong person is that they own every decision they make, irrespective of whether it is right or wrong, and it doesn’t matter to them what people around them are saying about them. The only thing on their focus is how they can solve the latest problem they have. Moreover, they don’t seek the problems as their obstacles, but rather see them as an opportunity for them to get stronger and learn new things.
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