10 Powerful Ways to Build Your Mental Strength

In this article, you’ll discover how to build mental strength so that you’re better prepared to deal with the unexpected. Your mental toughness makes you more resilient, easily adaptable, and stable emotionally.

We came a long way since we were hunters and gatherers. Don’t you think?

We, now, create incredible things that, even less than one hundred years ago, seemed impossible. We are living longer, healthier, more purposefully than ever before. We understand ourselves and the universe like never before.

(Put aside the fact that we, also engage in wars, and sometimes destruction because those behaviors only show us that we still have a long way to progress.)

We are the thinking, loving, talking, planning, collaborating creature; we are builders and visionaries; we came a long way indeed, and we are doing all that with the help of our mind; your best asset and strength is your mental power.

Here you have 10 Powerful Ways to Improve Your Mental Strength:

1. Learn how to move on and let go

Avoid wasting your time feeling sorry for yourself or being too self-conscious; lingering in what could have been or things you’ve lost. Let go of those things that keep you a hostage of the past and move on.

These days we are on a constant run. For that reason, you might feel overwhelmed and worry too much about the future.

Worrying can give you a false sense that you’re in control. Yet, agonizing and occupying your mind with thoughts of a disastrous future (that’s what worries are) prevent you from stepping into that beautiful future you desire.

2. Stay firm on your principles and values

Any ship would be lost at sea without a navigation system. Your principles and values are your guides in life and ensure that you keep the course and path you’ve chosen.

Many times you might get off course just because you let unimportant things bother you. Those unimportant things can slip onto your priorities list, and pretty soon you realize you’re spending most of your day with them.

Improve your mental strength by using your principles and values as the boundaries of what’s important to you.

3. Embrace change

Change is unavoidable; it happens with your will or without it. The only questions are:

• Are you making the best change?
• Do you take advantage of how life is changing?
• Is it your well-being more important than your vanity?

Develop your mental toughness by embracing change. Your life is (in) a constant change anyway, so make it change as you want and not randomly, by the volition of chance.

Don’t blame yourself if, in the past, you resisted change.

Listen, one of the beliefs that we hold dear, it’s the belief that “I’m a good person”. Mainly, for that reason, most of us stand firm in front of making things different or differently. Your unconscious mind might shout at you: “I’m a good person; why…oh, why do you want me to be different, to alter my behavior, or remodel who I am? I’m a good person; yet, I have to improve?”

That resistance can, sometimes, make you have conflicting emotions about yourself and doubt the fact that you’re enough.

Yet, being enough and wanting more don’t exclude each other! But go hand in hand.

How to develop mental toughness? Embrace change! Learn how to let go of the past:

• What it was,
• What it could have been,
• What you lost.

4. Happy thoughts, happy life

No one else controls your thought, you do. Take charge of your mind and who is living in there.

…Many nagging people lived in my head until I’ve realized that I can evict them…

You are the master of your thoughts!

How to improve your mental strength and resilience? Change your thoughts starting from forgiving yourself:

• What it was,
• What it could have been,
• What you lost.

If you noticed that you might tend to think negatively, know that’s the default program of your mind. We have inherited that programming from our ancestors that had to be on the lookout for dangers at every step they made. Today, the most dangerous thing you face is to allow your mind to linger in negative thoughts.

5. Be kind

Don’t worry about pleasing people; worry, though, about the legacy you leave behind.

Remind yourself that your legacy doesn’t start after you’re no longer on this planet; it starts (and restarts, again and again) the minute you leave a conversation, an interaction, or any other form of communication to others.

Thus, be kind. Be kind to others and be kind to yourself.

Improve your interpersonal skills, make yourself liked and desired, inspire people around you; do for others what you want them to do for you.

How is that improving your mental strength? You’re never left behind in doubt or regret:

• What it was,
• What it could have been,
• What you lost.

Thus, be kind. Be kind to others and be kind to yourself.

6. Be happy for others success

Celebrate others success (even if you don’t like them too much) because their progress and growth also have a positive effect on you too (if you allow it).

Being happy for others success, keeps your mind open. It motivates you never to stop learning, never stop wanting more, never stop challenging yourself.

Lead by example. Inspire others and allow yourself to get inspiration from others success.

Lead by example!

How is that developing your mental toughness? Your brain doesn’t make a distinction between being happy for others or yourself. Happiness is happiness. Your brain chemistry is the same in both cases.

Plus, if you find joy in others success, there is no room left for negative emotions, but only for positive ones (curiosity, excitement, hope, admiration, love, and confidence); positive emotions that make you more resilient and help you adapt to new circumstances.

7. Allow yourself to make mistakes

We’ve created a machine that flies above the clouds by making mistakes, trying and failing. You can create the life of your dreams only the same way: trials, errors and then success.

Overcome the fear of failure and allow yourself not to be disappointed when you fail. Failing is a just another step in your journey. A step that you must accept (as you accept victories) because failure is part of any process to progress and prosperity.

Develop your mental toughness by seeing failure (and making mistakes) as an integrated part of your process and journey.

Remind yourself that failure and mistakes are talking (solely) about the character of the ways you try things and not your character. The method is faulty, not you! Thus, change the method.

8. Listen to your deeper self

Stop! Stop thinking…stop feeling…stop analyzing…stop planning…stop! Stop and listen. Take a deep breath and listen to the words of wisdom that come from silence.

That silence is filled by your unconscious mind with those things you need to hear; things you ought to pay attention and notice; things you should make better, things you can improve.

You’ll never hear more wise words than those that your deeper self can tell you. Are you listening to it?

Live a mindful life. Live in the present moment so that you can build that future you desire.

Someone wise once said: “We are rushing through life and strive only to get safely to death.”

Running through life prevents you from enjoying the scenery of your journey; prevents you from seeing, hearing, feeling, and feasting on life’s spices and joy.

• You might never (really) know how you feel if you don’t ever listen to your deeper self.
• You might never know what’s the best version of your destiny to take if you don’t ever listen to your deeper self.
• You might never know where you are and where you’re going if you don’t ever listen to your deeper self.

Improve your mental strength by listening to your deeper self. Get to know yourself better.

Note:
Many people are afraid to stop and listen their inner self because, in the past when they tried that, felt overwhelmed by emotions they didn’t know how to face (or didn’t want to feel); hide behind tough exteriors and surfer.

9. Take responsibility

Be the cause of what is happening in your life, so you don’t have to suffer the consequences of others behaviors and actions.

Being in control of your life means to empower yourself with the ability to know what to do with the information you receive and not to censor that information. Is it not?

Discipline yourself to regard personal responsibility as a tool for mental toughness and resilience. Be the cause of what’s happening in your life so you can change the outcome.

Taking responsibility does not mean to start blaming yourself for your misfortunes.

Then, what does it mean?

• It means to take in your hands how you deal with them,
• Find the good part of everything and learn from it,
• Acknowledge your limitations and work with your strengths,
• See (then, accept and sort out) your choices,
• Know what you want and find Your Way to get there,
• It means to stop blaming yourself or others.

Why? So that, at the end of it all, to feel that you can count on yourself to get through whatever life put in front of you.

10. From time to time, reevaluate your core beliefs

We’ve created a machine that flies above the clouds and yet, some of us don’t believe that they could fly.

Belief is stronger than your values and principles because your mind is closed to wandering, to the possibilities, to even questioning the validity of your beliefs.

How to develop your mental toughness? Be open-minded regarding your core beliefs.

Reevaluating your core beliefs is nothing more than getting curious about them:

• How come you believe [that]?
• What made you come to that conclusion and is it still true?
• Can you be/act differently?

There are many other questions that can open your mind regarding your beliefs. Note that when you allow yourself to get curious, those questions will come to you.

Take for example the belief that you can’t paint (or whatever else you think you can’t do) and start asking questions. You’ll be surprised how much more capable and powerful you are than what you believed.

Or, another example – most people believe they have to show themselves (always) happy in public to be accepted and liked. That is a lie! People lie to you and themselves when say they are attracted only to cheerful individuals. The reality is that we are drawn to individuals who seem to have a life similar (or a bit better) than ours.

Why? We want those around us to understand, sympathize and empathize with our pains, frustrations, and problems.

I gave you that example because that is one of the (faulty) core beliefs that can make you (the most) feel inadequate, unlovable, undesired, unimportant, and many other things starting with a [un].

Now, that you (most probably) feel mentally stronger, tougher and resilient, do you believe you can change the world? Yes, you can! You have an asset and the tool that allows you to do it: Your Mind.

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