What are you doing today to build your mental toughness?
Mental toughness has always been a big part of End of Three Fitness. In fact, one of the questions I ask every podcast guest is
- “What is the best activity for building mental toughness?â€
I’ve written articles on the topic such as; Simple(ish) Ways to Build Mental Toughness, The Lost Art of Mental Toughness and How to Find It and we have a free 7-day course on Mental Toughness at Betterhumanology, a paid course called the Mental Toughness Militia and that was the the reason I ran a marathon without training
So to say I am a bit infatuated with this subject is an understatement.
That’s also why I am super excited about a recent interview I did on the podcast with Dr. Rob Bell, a Sports Psychologist who has dedicated many years to studying mental toughness.
You can listen to the podcast below, but I was also inspired to write down my three biggest takeaways.
1.) To get better, don’t add…REMOVE
An excellent point from Dr. Bell was that people always focus on what they can do, or add, to get better. Admittedly, he said you’ll get better. But, if you want to be great you need to think about what can be removed.
I could not agree more, and want to relate this to physical training.
It wasn’t until I started training with less equipment, more efficiency and truly adopting the 80/20 Rule in fitness that I started to see my progress skyrocket.
I started to reduce training time, take out equipment and accessory work that I did not find 100% beneficial, or worse, inefficient.
It is an excellent point that goes far beyond training and I want to challenge you to REALLY think about it.
- What could you REMOVE in your life (or training) that will make you better?
Next, let’s get cold…
2.) Cold Showers improve your mental toughness
You know, when I started the betterhumanology podcast, I knew two things for sure, and that was that I wanted to know what guests thought it took to be better AND what I could do to build mental toughness.
And some of the most respected guys in this industry make it pretty simple.
Dr. Rob Bell, an expert in mental toughness, and Joe DeSena, the founder of the Spartan Race and crazy endurance athlete, amongst others have suggested the same thing
- COLD SHOWERS
There’s a point in research or studying that you can stop looking to scientists, studies or mathematics…and this is that point.
Some of the top performers in the world are saying the same thing
You want more mental toughness?
Wake up. Man up. Take a cold shower!
It has more benefits than you may know and you can read my article on How Your Daily Shower Can Make You a Better Human.
3.) Your brain has more potential than you may ever get to realize
One of the topics I am absolutely fascinated with is the Placebo Effect.
If you are unfamiliar with the placebo effect, it is a beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment.
Dr. Bell and I discuss the Placebo Effect in the podcast, but what has me on the floor about this topic and what nobody seems interested in pursuing is its true power.
Think about it. You can cure yourself with belief, with positive thinking, or to put it simply with your own brain.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll even still be alive when the human race uncovers the true power of your mind and perhaps the harnessing of the placebo effect.
But it is an interesting topic and one that I will talk more about around EO3.
But that’s it on mental toughness today…now to you!
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So, what about you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on ways to build mental toughness, cold showers, or the placebo effect.
Add them to the comments!
I’d love to discuss.
To becoming better,
Jerred
photo credits: Cold via photopin (license), In My Head via photopin (license), Remove before flight tags via photopin (license), Powered by Flickr @ Porto Alegre via photopin (license)