Global Atlantic Financial Group - Leaders Insights Spring 2020 | Page 6

MENTALLY STRONG
10 HABITS
Of Mentally Strong People
BY: DR. TRAVIS BRADBERRY, AWARD WINNING AUTHOR
DESPITE WEST Point Military Academy’s rigorous selection
process, one in five students drop out by graduation day. A
sizeable number leave the summer before freshman year,
when cadets go through a rigorous program called “the Beast.”
The Beast consists of extreme physical, mental, and social
challenges that are designed to test candidates’ perseverance.
University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth
conducted a study in which she sought to determine which
cadets would make it through the Beast program. The rigorous
interviews and testing that cadets went through to get into
West Point in the first place told Angela that IQ and talent
weren’t the deciding factors.
So, Angela developed her own test to determine which cadets
had the mental strength to conquer the Beast. She called it the
“Grit Scale,” and it was a highly accurate predictor of cadet success.
The Grit Scale measures mental strength, which is that unique
combination of passion, tenacity, and stamina that enables you to
stick with your goals until they become a reality.
To increase your mental strength, you simply need to change
your outlook. When hard times hit, people with mental strength
suffer just as much as everyone else. The difference is that they
understand that life’s challenging moments offer valuable lessons.
In the end, it’s these tough lessons that build the strength you need
to succeed.
Developing mental strength is all about habitually doing the
things that no one else is willing to do. If you aren’t doing the
following things on a regular basis, you should be, for these are
the habits that mentally strong people rely on.
1. You Have To Fight When You Already Feel Defeated.
A reporter once asked Muhammad Ali how many sit-ups he
does every day. He responded, “I don’t count my sit-ups, I only
start counting when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, cause
that’s when it really matters.” The same applies to success in
the workplace. You always have two choices when things begin
to get tough: you can either overcome an obstacle and grow in
the process or let it beat you. Humans are creatures of habit. If
you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit
the next time. On the other hand, if you force yourself to push
through a challenge, the strength begins to grow in you.
2. You Have To Delay Gratification.
There was a famous Stanford experiment in which an
administrator left a child in a room with a marshmallow for 15
minutes. Before leaving, the experimenter told the child that
she was welcome to eat it, but if she waited until he returned
without eating it, she would get a second marshmallow. The
children that were able to wait until the experimenter returned
experienced better outcomes in life, including higher SAT
scores, greater career success, and even lower body mass
indexes. The point is that delay of gratification and patience
are essential to success. People with mental strength know
that results only materialize when you put in the time and
forego instant gratification.
3. You Have To Make Mistakes, Look Like An Idiot, And Try
Again—Without Even Flinching.
In a recent study at the College of William and Mary,
researchers interviewed over 800 entrepreneurs and found that
the most successful among them tend to have two critical things
in common: they’re terrible at imagining failure and they tend not
to care what other people think of them. In other words, the most
successful entrepreneurs put no time or energy into stressing
about their failures as they see failure as a small and necessary
step in the process of reaching their goals.
4. You Have To Keep Your Emotions In Check.
Negative emotions challenge your mental strength every
step of the way. While it’s impossible not to feel your emotions,
it’s completely under your power to manage them effectively
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