Mental toughness is something that every leader should strive to have. It isn’t something that is easy to come by. Being mentally tough takes a lot of hard work and experience. It takes persistence and resilience when you fall down to get back up again. If you acknowledge that you need to improve your mental toughness, you are already half of the way there. Here is what you can do to start improving your mental toughness today.

Change The Way You Speak To Yourself Internally

Changing the way that you speak to yourself internally is key to becoming more mentally tough. A lot of people, unfortunately, talk to themselves in a very negative manner. This impacts your level of effectiveness as a team member, an employee, and as a leader. You want to take the words “don’t,” and “can’t” out of your mental vocabulary. It is about empowering yourself and working on being positive. When you talk positively to yourself, you are more likely to perform better at work.

Stop Deflecting The Blame–Take Responsibility

When you are mentally weak, you are more likely to deflect the blame. Deflecting blame is a way to make yourself feel better at the expense of the group. Mentally tough people can accept the blame and take the heat. They understand that taking responsibility is a key part of being a leader. They know that people will respect it, and their employees will be willing to work harder for a leader that they respect.

Figure Out What You Are Fighting For

A big part of mental toughness is actually emotional. You have to figure out what you are fighting for, and that emotional connection helps you to become more resilient. If you are working towards graduation for an advanced degree, use that mental image of walking across the stage to help you get back up when things get tough.

Stay Persistent

Persistence is a major part of being mentally tough. Being able to get back up again after things go wrong isn’t easy. And a lot of people don’t bounce back from failure. They may give up trying to learn a skill or get a promotion or internally tell themselves that they aren’t good enough. When you stay persistent, you can get past your missteps and failures and rebound. It isn’t always easy, but it is a necessary part of being mentally tough.

The most important part of mental toughness is persistence. It isn’t easy to keep getting up after you get knocked down. But it is also the most critical part. A big aspect of persistence is knowing what you are fighting for. When you have an emotional drive, you’ll find it easier to get back up when things go wrong. Learning to stop deflecting the blame and start taking responsibility is pretty important too. And changing our internal speech is also crucial. You need to change the way that you talk about yourself so that you can frame things positively.