What is mental strength, and why it matters

Think about how well your mind functions. Contrary to popular thought, we use all of our brain all the time, but most of us are only aware of 10% of how our mind functions (think of the mind as brain plus personality). That means most of us are at the mercy of how our minds have been originally programmed. If you are not aware of your mind then you operate on autopilot. This leads you to repeat your parents mistakes in your own life - scary, right? But once you understand your programming you can change it. Most people’s mental programming needs editing and improving.

Mental strength is about how you use your mind to reach your goals and be happy. Your mind influences your emotions and your behaviour and plays a big part in how you make decisions. Consider how often your mind works for you (high mental strength) or against you (low mental strength)? Any form of mental sabotage equates to low mental strength, and any mental process that helps you reach your goals reflects high mental strength. For example, pessimistic thinking can sabotage performance and decision making, whilst optimistic thinking can enhance performance and decision making.

To improve your mental strength you need to become more aware of your mental habits, and how effective they are. Mental habits include what you pay attention to, the way you perceive and interpret events, your expectations of yourself and others, the quality of your thoughts, the beliefs you hold about everything, and how strongly you hold those beliefs, and the way you talk to yourself and cope with difficult situations. Each of these elements in the mind interacts in complex ways, so knowing yourself is an ongoing learning process, that sometimes needs expert assistance.

A person high in mental strength makes everything look easy. You are more efficient and effective at everything you do, because the right thinking guides your actions. You take charge of your mind, rather than trying to control it or allowing your autopilot to control you. Good planning, preparation and organisation are signs of high mental strength. By being more aware of a situation, you plan the appropriate method to tackle it in advance of taking action. Then when you execute those actions it all goes smoothly and you use this method next time you are in the same situation. And you keep learning from every experience, because your ego is strong enough to admit that there is more to learn. This is how you build your mental capability.

Consider how well you learn from experiences. An open mind means you learn easily from experience, and thats a sign of high mental strength. Low mental strength is using up your energy and time defending yourself against learning from an experience because it doesn't match your views. Your fear-based rigid thinking keeps getting you the same negative results, because you are fighting reality.Mental strength training is one aspect of my 5-part methodology of psychological change. It involves improving your mental habits, including mental discipline skills such as motivation, concentration, mental filtering, determination and persistence. It also involves strengthening your self belief, willpower, and the ability to manage attitude and perspective.

Each of these skills contributes to success and happiness. The course I am creating explains in detail how you can improve these skills and your overall mental strength. You can check my website for more details on the course.

If you would like learn more, do make sure to check out my Thrive Learning Program course which can help to improve your quality of life.

https://www.petercharleston.com/courses

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