When Covid-19 struck, there was much written about resilience and how people demonstrated it to help them cope with the challenges the pandemic threw at us.
Many people started offering training aimed at helping us develop resilience.
From my perspective, people adapting, coping and successfully managing the impact of Covid or any other difficult life or business experience should know that there’s more to it than that.
We all arguably have resilience; it’s demonstrated when we show grit or determination to succeed. There’s an expression which sums up how some people are better than others in this respect: “mental toughness”.
What is mental toughness?
Mental toughness is not just reserved for people in our elite armed forces or for sports professionals. It isn’t about being macho, uncaring or self-centred – but it is about being tough in the sense of not giving up and being confident that you can prevail even if the odds are stacked against you.
Although resilience is defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties”, having mental toughness is more of a personality trait which determines, in large part, how people respond to challenge, stress and pressure, irrespective of their circumstances.
Mental toughness describes the mindset that every person adopts in everything they do. It is closely related to qualities such as character, resilience and grit. Everyone has mental toughness, but might not realise it, because they’re not aware of their own personality traits and the abilities they possess.
Most personality models and measures assess the behavioural aspects of personality (how we act), but mental toughness differs in that it assesses something more fundamental: how we think. In other words, why we act and respond emotionally to events. This insight enables us to understand our mindset in a very practical way.
The mental toughness mindset
Mental toughness is a mindset that describes your default response when faced with stress, pressures or challenges, irrespective of the prevailing circumstances.
Peter Clough, Professor of Applied Psychology and a pioneer on research into mental toughness, further describes a mentally tough person as “someone who is comfortable in their own skin, can take whatever comes along in their stride and mostly enjoy the challenge”.
You can assess your own mental toughness using a model developed by Doug Strycharczyk and AQR International who have worked with Professor Clough and others over many years to develop the Mental Toughness Questionnaire.
This research-proven instrument is unique and use of it will provide considerable insight into your thinking so you can increase self-awareness and improve your effectiveness.
A model of mental toughness
Below is an illustration of the model and its component parts:
Having a mentally tough (or, when needed, a mentally sensitive) mindset can have a significant impact on your performance, positive behaviour and personal wellbeing in that you will;
- believe that you can make a difference and keep your emotions in check when doing it;
- set goals and then do whatever it takes to achieve those goals;
- be motivated to tackle any challenges and understand that setbacks make you stronger;
- have increased self- belief in your ability to deliver and to stand your ground if you need to.
Having the ability to cope and bounce back needs to be seen as a mindset or an approach to life that enables people to master life’s challenges when in the face of difficulty or adversity.
Improving your self-awareness and obtaining insight into how you think will improve your effectiveness in all aspects of your life.
