🔥3 Strategies to Up Your Mental Resilience

Strengthen your mind to become unstoppable

Welcome back!

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." 

— Nelson Mandela

In today’s crazy world, mental resilience isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’: it’s essential. The ability to bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and keep pushing forward will mean the difference between thriving and merely surviving. And who wants to just survive? By cultivating a bulletproof mindset, you can turn obstacles into opportunities and challenges into stepping stones.

Building mental resilience is about handling stress and transforming challenges into growth opportunities, which allows you to overcome future struggles with confidence and composure. 

But what does it take to forge that inner strength? 

What is mental resilience really about?

Mental resilience is “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences”. It’s about adapting well in the face of trauma, tragedy, and threats. Resilience doesn’t eliminate stress or erase life’s difficulties, but it does give you the strength to keep moving forward without breaking down.

Resilience is the blip of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, pushing you to look beyond your current situation to see life beyond whatever you’re enduring. It's the faith that this too shall pass and that there is a better situation, and a better version of you, waiting on the other side.

Here are 4 Steps to Build Mental Resilience

1. Reflect on Your Past Challenges

Think about the challenges you’ve faced in the past. How did you handle them? Did you see them as insurmountable obstacles that left you helpless OR as opportunities for growth that you appreciated and embraced? Reflecting on how you’ve dealt with adversity in the past can provide valuable insights into your current level of resilience and areas for improvement.

This can be challenging because recalling our past challenges can stir up all of that historic stress, but this reflection is a critical part of personal growth. You may recall failures you're ashamed of, but you will also remember successes. Big or small, remembering those past victories will remind you that you can win and what it feels like to keep pushing until you do. Maybe you doubted yourself before just like you are now, but even that doubt didn't stop you from coming out on top back then.

You've beaten the odds before, and you can do it again.

Dig deep and find those moments of victory. Again, even if they're small, they are evidence that you can and have overcome before.

2. Embrace Discipline

One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to power through challenges without a clear plan. Discipline is not just about sheer willpower; it’s about creating consistent habits that reinforce your goals.

Discipline is the bedrock of mental resilience. It's not about grinding through with white-knuckle willpower, but about creating a winning streak of small victories. Those are what make you stronger. Start with the baby weights and go up from there. It doesn't matter how impressive your starting point is: What matters is that you start where you can consistently win.

Discipline is the result of small victories that create strength over time.

Little by little, these small wins compound until you're able to stay focused and persistent no matter what life throws your way. If you want to develop discipline, create a strategy to start winning small battles. Eventually, you'll be strong enough to win the war.

3. Visualize Success

Visualization is a POWERFUL way to trick your brain into believing that whatever you want to come true has already happened. When you do that, you eliminate the self-doubt and hesitation that get in the way. This mental shift has a profound impact on your sub-conscious motivation and determination.

Unfortunately, this can also happen in the opposite direction, and this is a rut that many people get stuck in. But not you! Not today!

Whatever thought cycle we might have had playing through our minds yesterday, today is a new day. We are warriors ready to slay our dragons.

Take a few minutes each day to close your eyes and picture yourself effortlessly overcoming obstacles to reach your goals. Imagine the sights, sounds, and feelings associated with your success. Feel the strength flowing through your veins and remember what it feels like to be invincible. Take a deep breath and unleash the unstoppable version of yourself. Soak that feeling up.

I don't care if you think power poses and breathing exercises are ridiculous. Do them in your closet in the dark or lock the bathroom door. You need to start to hijack your sub-conscious to work FOR you instead of AGAINST you.

4. Leverage Community Support

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."

— Phil Jackson

No one achieves greatness alone. Surrounding yourself with a supportive community will provide the encouragement and accountability you need to stay on track. Not only that, but as you build mental resilience, you’ll become a positive example to others! This back-and-forth positive reinforcement will make your whole team grow faster and stronger.

Ultimately, people will come to expect that you're the type of person who gets up early, works out like a savage, does great work, and doesn't eat junk. Now your reputation is working for you, and you're locked on the path to the highest levels of success.

Whether it’s a mentor, a friend, a coach, or a support group, having people who believe in you and your goals around you will make all the difference.

Let's Recap

1. Reflect on your past challenges and identify when you've won.

2. Embrace discipline by starting small and building win streaks.

3. Visualize success to make your subconscious work for you again.

4. Leverage community support to keep you on the path to mental strength. 

If you follow this blueprint, you'll quickly build habits of winning that redefine how you see yourself and your environment. You'll naturally raise your own standards, be less moved by external forces, and find it easier to overcome greater and greater challenges.

Follow Jon Cobb Coaching on LinkedIn for more insights and strategies.