Tiger Woods recently won his 5th Masters title after coming into the final round trailing by two shots. Two years prior, Tiger needed a nerve block to even be able to sit at the dinner table after a debilitating back injury. After four surgeries, he had to rebuild his game from scratch. Tiger’s life and career has included scandal, substance abuse, injury, and very public failures. Tiger’s Masters win is the very definition of mental toughness.
My official definition for mental toughness is the mind's ability to focus on solutions, especially in the face of adversity. You know you are mentally tough when you can thrive on adversity.
It doesn’t take much between the ears to handle life when you are already winning on the scoreboard, but when you are down to two minutes on the clock and you are losing by six points, that’s when you will really need your mind to be strong and ready.
To learn to thrive on adversity, there are two things that must be remembered:
1. Expect Difficulties: Mentally tough people are not surprised when they experience tough times, they expect them to occur. You must realize that not all days will be sunny and cloudless. The reality is that there will be storms, and some of those storms will be major throughout life. Don’t be afraid or surprised by them.
There is an old saying: “Be prepared for the worst. Plan for the best.” When the possibility of trouble arises, allow yourself 60 seconds to think through the worst that could happen. Take another 60 seconds to figure out what you will do to get through the worst if it occurs. After doing so, realize you are prepared.
Now the trick becomes focusing on how you want things to go. Force all thoughts moving forward on the potential positive outcome and result. If trouble shows up, you will deal with it; otherwise, enjoy life’s blessings.
2. Control What You Can Control: I heard the great coach John Wooden say that one of the most important things he learned was that “true success is defined with effort and process…not with results.” Most people get caught up in defining success with things they ultimately can’t control.
The mind can only fully focus on one thing at a time. If you are allowing your mind to focus on results, you cannot in the same moment be concentrating on what causes those results. This is known as the paradox of the product goal. The more you focus on results, typically the further you get from achieving them.
Expect difficulties and be prepared. Focus on your process—the important activities that lead you to your results—and you will be thriving on adversity.
