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Boost your Mental Toughness!!

When you hear the term “Mental Toughness” it’s easy to think of sportspeople, or people putting themselves through extreme feats like climbing Mount Everest!! Mental Toughness seems to be everywhere today, and is frequently referenced in sporting literature…. but do you need to be super sporty, or hike through mud and snow to be mentally tough? Or can mental toughness help anyone achieve their goals? Are there mentally tough musicians, dancers, office workers, accountants etc!?

Anyone, in fact, can be mentally tough….regardless of your interest or lack of interest in sport/ice bucket challenges/Tough Mudder/eating insects etc. *Phew!*

Mentally toughness can be defined as “a collection of values, attitudes, behaviours, emotions, which enable and individual to persevere through any adversity, and to maintain concentration and motivation when things are going well” (Gucciardi & Gordon, 2007). So in a nutshell, it’s about having qualities which can help direct you to persevere towards your goals and to be motivated to keep persevering!!

So what are these wonderful qualities which make up mental toughness? Clough & Strycharczyk (2011) use the 4 “C’s” model of mental toughness, which breaks mental toughness into:

Challenge – this is about embracing change, and seeing challenges as opportunities for growth!
Control – this is about having a “can do” attitude, feelings of accountability and belief you can achieve the outcomes you want, as well as your ability to control your emotions.
Confidence – a belief in your own abilities, as well as confidence in your ability to influence others!
Commitment – an ability to set clear goals, and to persevere towards them!

This all sounds great in theory, but are some people just born more “mentally tough” than others!? Well luckily, mental toughness can be taught, and there are several strategies which have been tried and tested in the field of sports psychology, which are now translating to coaching and management literature.

There is no quick fix to become mentally tough, but through a combination of strategies, you can increase your mental toughness….here are a few of my favourite strategies!!

Goal setting. Whilst this sounds simple, setting clear goals can help to direct your attention to the important tasks you need to focus on, and can enhance your commitment to goals. Just remember to set your goals at a level of difficulty that is at the right level of challenge. You may start which smaller, easier to achieve sub goals, then work towards increasing your sense of challenge buy progressing setting more difficult goals. Think about how you will measure your goals….how will you know when you’ve achieved them? Think about the support or resources you might need to achieve your goals.
Mindfulness. Mindfulness compliments mental toughness in many ways – mindfulness is actually a fantastic tool for helping you to develop attentional control and focus (a key element of the “control” component of mental toughness!). In turn, when you’re better able to focus and remain in control of your emotions, you may just find you experience increased confidence as a result of this!
Imagery. Imagery, or mental rehearsal, is commonly used by athletes who are trying to practice and perfect their technical skills, without engaging in physical practice, and can also help increase your feelings of confidence and control. Whatever you’re working on developing your mental toughness for, you can apply imagery to. Are you giving a performance? A speech? Playing in a tennis match? Whatever the task, close your eyes and imagine performing the task in real time. Imagine yourself in the same setting where you would perform the actual task. Think of the feelings you would typically have at the time of the task, and try and bring those to mind. Practice your task/performance in as much detail as you can, using all your senses (imagining the task, imagining the sensations you would feel, imagining the sounds that you would hear). Imagine yourself performing the task perfectly!
Reflection. Mentally tough people regularly reflect on their successes and setbacks…what worked well and what didn’t. Reflection is a key tool to help you to review your progress, acknowledge your successes and improvements, and to make adjustments to your goals and strategies to achieve them if they’re not working!! You could also reflect on your past successes in similar situations to increase your optimism and confidence even more!!

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Remember, like all changes, building mental toughness takes time and persistence!! Enlisting social support from friends and loved ones can also be a great tactic to help support you in your changes.

Would you try some of these strategies? Would you go on a mental toughness journey to help you to achieve and persevere at your goals?

Positive Thinking: Can Self Talk and Positive Affirmations Increase your Performance?

Our minds are constantly chattering away with an internal dialogue, or “self talk.” Our self talk can be helpful, and can help to increase our confidence, mood or performance, or at times, self talk can be negative, which can lead to decreased confidence, performance difficulties and low mood.

Do you use positive thinking to help you get through tough situations, like public speaking, performances or even social situations? Does it work for you? Using positive affirmations or “positive self talk” is often praised as a key strategy to increase performance, and even to change our moods…but is self talk actually effective? Could simply replacing a negative thought with a positive one actually change how we feel and help us to perform better?

Some people like to use positive affirmations to increase their confidence (eg, “I’m great at X, I’m amazing!!” etc), but it’s important to use such affirmations with caution. If you don’t actually believe the content of a positive affirmation to be true, then it could backfire. A study by Wood, Perunovic & Lee (2003) evaluated the effectiveness of positive self statements. The results concluded that for people with low self esteem, positive self statements can be ineffective and can cause the person’s feelings about themselves and their mood to feel worse!! For people with high self esteem, positive self statements were shown to lead to a small increase in positive feelings and mood. The authors of the study outline that “Repeating positive self-statements may benefit certain people, but backfire for the very people who ‘‘need’’ them the most.”

Self talk is a popular technique in the field of sports psychology, but there is surprisingly little evidence to support its benefit… however, Moran (2004) outlines that self talk may be useful in performances, as it can direct our attention to focus on key cues and demands related to a performance.

So with all this confusion, how can you best use self talk to support your performance in any given situation? Try the following tips:

Keep self talk positively phrased, emphasising what you should do, instead of what you should avoid. For example, “I can choose healthy food options”, rather than “don’t eat junk food!”, or “relax my shoulders and breath deeply” rather than “don’t make any mistakes!.”
Don’t use positive affirmations you don’t believe to be true – instead, find a statement that focuses your attention on something you can control or focus on.
Keep positive statements focused on things within your control, for example “Take a deep breath to relax,” “soft grip,” “focus on your posture,” “if I make a mistake, take a breath and start again” etc.
Keep it short and simple, and as vivid as possible, to focus your attention on cues relevant to the task. Try a trigger word related to performance cues like “relax”, “energise!” “soft tone” etc.
Use past successes to boost your confidence – rather than a general positive affirmation “I rock at public speaking!,” you could focus your self talk on a past successful performance “I felt confident when I gave a speech at last month’s team meeting and received great feedback!”

Do you ever use self talk to help you to focus at work, during sports, or when giving performances? Would you try this?

Can mindfulness help enhance your performance?

Do you experience difficulty in high pressure situations, like giving a presentation, performing in public, or competing in sports? Mindfulness could be a key strategy in helping you to remain focused and give your best performance.

There are many factors that occur psychologically before any performance, which may negatively impact our performance; these include our self talk or inner dialogue (“I know I’ll stuff up this presentation, they probably know I don’t know what Im taking about!”), our expectations about success or failure (“I’ll probably be so embarrassed I’ll have to find a new job!” *facepalm*), a focus on our own physical sensations (such as noticing yourself feeling shaky or jittery – “why oh why did I drink three coffees and skip lunch!?”), self doubts, and even efforts to try and “block out” negative thoughts.

However, it may be that the more time we focus on trying to control these uncomfortable thoughts, feelings and behaviours, that performance can actually be impaired… this could be because that by focusing on controlling our mental processes, it distracts us from the task at hand, and brings our attention from the present moment and external environment, back into our inner selves. “Experiential avoidance” is a term that means using strategies to try and control or block out unpleasant thoughts, feelings or sensations. For example, someone who is feeling excessively anxious before giving a work presentation, may call in sick to work that day, thus preventing the discomfort of the feelings of anxiety (at least in the short term). Other experiential avoidance techniques might include attempts to try and control our thoughts through distraction or trying to suppress our thoughts….but by being kept busy trying to control our negative thoughts, this doesn’t leave much time to focus on the actual performance task at hand, and the environmental demands!!

Gardner & Moore (2007) outline an “Acceptance-based approach” to performance, which outlines that when performers are able to accept that their negative thoughts, feelings or internal experiences are normal, and refocus their attention to the performance task at hand, this will enhance performance by keeping them focuses on the key aspects of the environment needed for excellent performance. In contrast, performers who engage in experiential avoidance are likely to have impaired performance outcomes.

“Performance outcomes depend on the degree to which the performer accepts his or her own experiences as normal or naturally occurring; is willing to persist on the task despite these experiences and maintains his attentional focus on the environment at hand rather than his or her internal thoughts, feelings an physical sensations.” (Gardner & Moore, 2007, pp. 166)

So how can you just “accept” your negative thoughts, crushing feelings of anxiety etc, and focus on a performance, when you feel terrified!? A key strategy to help you to learn to “unhook” from negative thoughts, and to learn to focus on the present is mindfulness.

Mindfulness can be defined as “Paying attention on purpose, without judgment to our experience as it unfolds moment by moment” (Kabat-Zin, 1990). Whilst this all might sound great, mindfulness takes practice!! Fear not though, there are some easy ways you can integrate mindfulness into your daily routine…through regular practice of mindfulness you begin to unhook from thoughts, and focus more on the present.

Click here for my introduction to mindfulness post with two simple exercises you can try. I’ve also just downloaded the Smiling Mind app for some simple mindfulness exercises I can download on my phone and do every day.

Are you a performer, athlete or someone who gives regular presentations? Have you tried using mindfulness as part of your pre-performance routine? How could you integrate mindfulness into your practice and preparation before a big event?

How to Beat Performance Anxiety

Brooks (2013) conducted a series of studies looking at performance anxiety across different settings including giving a speech, singing karaoke and completing a maths test.

The studies found that individuals who “reappraised” their anxiety into thoughts of excitement, performed better than people who told themselves to remain calm.

Trying to deal with pre-performance anxiety? Try re-framing your feelings of anxiety into thoughts of excitement! Try some positive self talk with simple phrases like “lets get excited!” or “I can’t wait to do this!!” This is more effective than attempting to calm down.

Also – remember, we have an optimum level of anxiety that helps us to perform better! A little bit of nerves may actually help you!! (Just don’t tell yourself to calm down!!)

What techniques do you use to beat pre-performance anxiety? Would you try this technique?