Why Your Mental Toughness Determines Your Success
Your success in your career and your life is determined largely by your attitude towards challenges and how you deal with the opportunities and setbacks arising from them. This attribute is your mental toughness and it is the attribute of champions.
There has been considerable research around the world into mental toughness and its benefits in performance, positivity and wellbeing, much of it generated by the work of Clough and Strycharczyk and the success of their MTQ48 psychometric measure.
Further research published recently has reinforced that mental toughness is the attribute of champions. It was completed by Professor Dave Collins and his team at the Institute of Coaching and Performance at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK and reported recently in Frontiers of Psychology. Professor Collins explained that through his research, we’ve found there are universal psychological characteristics amongst those who are aspiring to get to the top and we now have a good idea of what makes people excellent and how we can help them reach peak performance.
Collins and his team interviewed athletes from a variety of sports. They were looking for the characteristics that distinguished the best of the best, the good, and those who didn’t make the cut. They collected information about career trajectory, perceived challenges, and the participants’ reactions to those obstacles. They also explored participants’ commitment to their sports and their interactions with coaches and families.
The results showed that elite performers expressed an internal drive and commitment to their sports that their “almost” great colleagues lacked. The elite approached training with a “never satisfied” attitude, whereas the “almosts” would sometimes avoid challenging training exercises. Following an injury or a failure to perform, high performers were determined to get back to their sports, stronger than ever. Low achievers, on the other hand, often expressed surprise at their failures, telling how they lost enthusiasm after such incidents.
More than the challenges themselves, the differences came down to how the athletes reacted to obstacles and the champions’ positive “learn-from-it” attitudes. The findings of this research reinforced that mental toughness -this attribute of champions is something you can achieve if you really want to. If you possess a positive attitude and the commitment and drive to achieving your goal then you have the foundation of mental toughness and the path to being successful in your work and life.
The first step to developing mental toughness, the attribute of Champions, is to measure your current mental toughness by taking the MTQ48 psychometric measure developed by Clough and Strycharczyk. The MTQ48 results together with a mental toughness partner through reflection, self analysis and professional guidance will help you to develop your mental toughness, the attribute of champions, through a range of techniques and interventions.
To develop your attribute of champions contact us.