Do you have a clear idea of what good looks and feels like for you in your world? Or what great looks like? Or poor? Professionally and Personally?
Understanding what your good looks and feels like is important in building mental toughness because it helps develop your resilience and confidence.
One of the important steps in feeling resilient is having a clear idea of your purpose (your why) and your desired outcomes – what good looks like – and then having control over achieving those outcomes.
Although you may been blown off course by one or a series of setbacks, distractions or failures if you are clear and resolute in your purpose and desired outcomes, then you can more easily work out a way to get back to feeling resilient and in control.
It certainly helps if you can articulate what good looks and feels like for you because then you can better work out what you need to do to get there and of course what it looks and feels like once you have arrived.
One way to achieve this is through visualisation. If you can create a strong internal view of what you will see, hear and feel when you achieve your goal you can not only help yourself to move towards that goal but also know when you get there.
However, articulating this desired outcome precisely can sometimes be difficult because everyone has a personal opinion, and so judges it differently. Some will be precise in terms of measurable indicators whilst others will describe it in terms of intangibles such as values or behaviours.
A quantifiable definition is preferable because of its objectivity and applying the SMART goal acronym (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound) can help with producing this.
Often you will have this view imposed upon you by your manager or broader organisation, which at least gives you clarity on what it looks like even though it is someone else’s view.
So, in summary when setting goals and targets be sure to know what they look like to both help you achieve them and to know when you have achieved them.