Exit
mistakes were burned up. Now we
can start again fresh.”
“In a world that we don’t control,
tolerance is obviously an asset,”
Ryan Holiday, author of the forthcoming The Obstacle Is the Way,
told The Huffington Post. “But the
ability to find energy and power
from what we don’t control is an
immense competitive advantage.”
He’s talking about mental
strength, a difficult-to-define
psychological concept that encompasses emotional intelligence, grit, resilience, selfcontrol, mental toughness and
mindfulness. It’s something that
Edison had in spades, and it’s the
reason that some people are able
to overcome any obstacle, while
others crumble at life’s daily
challenges and frustrations.
The ability to cope with difficult
emotions and situations is a significant predictor of our success
and happiness. The most capable
individuals in this way are able
to turn any obstacle into a source
of growth and opportunity. And
while much has been made of what
mentally strong people avoid doing
— things like dwelling on the past,
resenting the success of others
and feeling sorry for themselves —
what do they actually do? What
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tactics do they use to overcome
adversity time and time again?
“Things that we think are obstacles are actually opportunities
to do something,” says Holiday.
“[To] be rewarded in some way
that we never would have expected, provided that we address and
don’t shirk from that obstacle.”
The ability to find energy
and power from what we
don’t control is an immense
competitive advantage.”
Here are 9 essential habits and
practices of mentally strong people that can help you get through
any challenge or hardship.
THEY SEE THINGS OBJECTIVELY.
The way we perceive a situation
has a tremendous power to either
help or harm us. So often, we react
emotionally and project negative
judgments onto a situation, when
the first key to overcoming a challenge is to see things objectively.
Holiday studied countless examples through history of individuals who overcame obstacles
that would seem completely insurmountable to most of us, from be-