Build Mental Toughness With Optimism

Build Mental Toughness with Optimism

In a fast-paced world, mental toughness will enable you to persevere long enough to succeed. Mental toughness isn't a fixed quality determined at birth. You can develop mental toughness through optimistic thinking.

We've discussed how mental toughness can differentiate high performers from unsuccessful ones. Author Annie Murphy Paul wrote in TIME about how optimism in the face of challenge contributes to mental toughness:

Mental toughness comes from thinking like an optimist. "People who don't give up have a habit of interpreting setbacks as temporary, local and changeable," notes Penn psychology professor Martin Seligman, describing the intervention in a recent journal article. When such individuals encounter adversity, they think to themselves: "It's going away quickly; it's just this one situation, and I can do something about it."

To become resilient you must choose optimism over catastrophic thinking. However, catastrophic thinking is different than negative thinking, which has significant and well understood benefits.

Can You Instill Mental Toughness? [Time via Barking Up the Wrong Tree]


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