Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink. Today, we are going to learn the secret
to becoming mentally strong. Now, let’s begin.
What’s the secret behind unstoppable mental strength? How do some people persevere through
adversity while others crumble and lose hope? Many people desire mental strength without
understanding what exactly they’re looking for. Mental strength has a variety of applications,
but at its core it can be summed up in a single word: resilience.
You need resilience to overcome stressors, resist distractions, and pursue lofty goals.
You need resilience to bear the burden of your failures and pursue a better version of yourself.
But where does resilience come from? Imagine this. After years of hard work,
your dream, which you believed in with every fiber of your being, falls to pieces,
leaving you feeling like a spectacular failure. No matter how tough you claim to be, a loss like this
devastates your mind and motivation. Your plans, goals, and dreams were ripped out from under you,
leaving you without a purpose or a sense of direction. Everything you counted on…
everything you worked for… is gone. Now, you’re unsure where your life is headed.
This vicious, downward spiral has claimed millions of dreamers. One mistake quickly devolves into
a cavernous rough patch from which they never escape. Buried under the weight of their failures,
they have lost hope and confidence. In many cases, they’ve come to believe success is no
longer an option—that they’ve squandered their last chance to find happiness.
But a resilient mind never stays down for long. People with mental strength experience sadness,
regret, and frustration, just like everyone else, but against all odds, they summon their courage
and willpower; and they steer their life in a new direction. In the wake of every failure, they
discover confidence and a new purpose, challenging themselves to dream bigger than ever before.
Of course, shedding the weight of your failures isn’t easy. When you’ve lost your place and
purpose, you become trapped under a mountain of your own creation, built out of your doubts,
insecurities, and fears. So, how do you find your way out? When failure interrupts your
success and changes your expectations, how do you survive and prosper? How do you set yourself free?
Mental strength, like any skill set, requires time, practice, and experience. There’s no way
around that. There are, however, techniques you can use to improve your mindset and strengthen
your resilience before failure strikes. Peter Clough and Doug Strycharczyk, two
psychologists specializing in mental resilience, discuss several, powerful techniques to strengthen
your mind. According to Clough and Strycharczyk, each of these techniques revolves around mental
control. Before you can bounce back from failure or persevere through adversity,
you need to control the way you think. That means eliminating negativity, soothing your anxiety,
and transforming self-deprecating narratives. Each of these skills relies on your ability
to filter information, also known as attention control. Imagine you’re sitting down at your desk,
getting ready to work. Each time you open your computer, fill out a spreadsheet, or sift through
emails, you’re exercising attentional control. You’re creating a mental filter which lets useful
information in and keeps useless information out. For example, when you’re working on a spreadsheet,
your brain chooses to ignore irrelevant stimuli, like your dog barking in the backyard or your
neighbors chatting outside your window. But, at any time, you can choose to shift your focus.
Maybe you want to eavesdrop on your neighbors’ conversation. Even though
you’re still looking at your computer, you’re filtering in and out different sets of stimuli.
Your brain exercises attentional control every single day, but it’s often unconscious. Or out of
your control. Many people have trouble working in noisy or crowded rooms because they can’t ignore
or filter out unnecessary information. Resilient people, on the other hand,
possess strong, attentional filters. Even in a room full of distractions, they can tune out
useless information and perform at their best. Think about professional athletes who play and
perform in high-pressure, highly publicized situations. They’re constantly bombarded by
irrelevant, distracting stimuli. Fans booing from the stands. Opponents trying to get under
their skin. If they reacted to every inference, they’d never be able to perform the way they do.
That’s why coaches and trainers teach attentional control to their athletes.
They’re building mental resilience by sharpening their cognitive filters. When it’s game time,
professional athletes block out everything but one, central goal. They must perform. At that
moment, nothing else matters. You may not be a professional
athlete. You may not be surrounded by lights, music, and roaring fans every day of your life,
but you do have distractors standing in the way of your performance and productivity. Like a
professional athlete, your performance depends on your ability to filter unnecessary information.
When a project fails, a relationship ends, or an opportunity disappears, you will encounter mental
obstacles threatening to derail your success. Self-defeating mindsets. Petrifying fears.
Pessimistic narratives. Each of these distractors, like the crowd booing you from the stands,
makes it harder for you to improve or recover. If you pay attention to these vicious distractors,
your failures may overwhelm you, crushing you, pushing you closer to rock bottom.
But attention control, and a strong filter, can rescue you from the lowest points in your
life. By silencing your fears, you can reorient your thoughts toward success,
redemption, and self-improvement. In other words, you’re changing your personal narrative,
replacing a destructive story with one that’s positive and empowering. With practice,
you can transform every catastrophic failure into a priceless learning experience.
We’ve covered a lot of ground already, so let’s review. Mental strength,
or mental resilience, describes your ability to persevere through difficult situations,
like professional failures and missed opportunities. To overcome those obstacles,
you need to exercise attentional control. How? By developing a filter for useless information
and unhelpful ideas. This filter tunes out distractors and dispels negativity,
but more importantly it gives you a light at the end of the tunnel. A reason to persevere
through hardship and pursue your dreams. But how do you exercise control over your
thoughts? What habits and techniques can you use to build mental resilience?
There are a wide variety of tools at your disposal, ranging from quick, daily exercises to
significant lifestyle shifts. While we don’t have time to introduce each one in this video, let’s
discuss two simple and interesting techniques, which anyone can weave into their daily routine.
The first exercise was developed for a 1935 experiment by psychologist John Ridley Stroop.
The test, known as the Stroop Test, explored the brain’s interpretation of congruent
and incongruent sensory information. For example, imagine the word “green” written in green and red
letters. When stimuli are congruent or matching, your brain reacts quickly and efficiently;
but when stimuli are incongruent, your brain gets confused. It struggles to make sense of
those contrasting stimuli, slowing your reaction speed and increasing the likelihood of error.
But there’s another process at work here. To complete the Stroop Test,
your brain must exercise attentional control. You must shift your attention from the colors
of the words to the meaning of the words. In other words, you must block out confusing stimuli, like
incongruent colors, to improve your reaction time. The Stroop Test is a short and simple exercise,
which eats up only a few minutes of your time, but with practice this brief experiment can
sharpen your attentional control. As your reaction time improves, your cognitive filter will too,
providing more and more control of your psychological state.
The next technique takes an entirely different approach to mental resilience.
Instead of training your brain with testable, scientific exercises, this technique builds mental
strength by transforming your perspective. When you feel defeated, lost, or insecure,
it’s tempting to complain about your bad luck. Most people wallow in their losses,
swimming in a pool of self-pity, but there’s an easy way to get your life back on track. There’s
a reason you wallow and complain. It’s because failure teaches you to despise your shortcomings.
You criticize your work, your environment, and your misfortunes. You attack your weaknesses and
daydream about being someone new. But it’s this negative mentality that empowers your hopeless,
self-deprecating narrative. But you can change the way you think. It
all starts with a list. Five items written down a sheet of paper, each one an opportunity for you to
grow as an individual. After experiencing failure, make a short list containing five things you would
improve upon next time around. If you had a second chance, what specific changes would you make?
What do you know now that you wish you knew then? This exercise encourages you to perceive your
failures, not as mistakes, but as learning experiences. At the same time, it trains you
to ignore destructive sentiments while fostering a mentality centered on self-improvement.
This is not an exhaustive list of every technique at your disposal. If you want
to become mentally stronger, I encourage you to explore different techniques on your own.
Because each of these techniques, from team sports to data-driven tests, builds your unshakable
resilience. Each technique gives you the knowledge and confidence to persevere through failure;
so long as you remain active and consistent. Whatever routine you build for yourself, know
that mental strength boils down to a single truth. If you can control your attention, you can drive
your life in any direction you choose. You can’t turn back the clock. There’s no guarantee every
venture in your life will find success; but over time, you will cultivate the strength to overcome
each obstacle and learn from each mistake. Thank you for watching TopThink,
and be sure to subscribe, because more incredible content is on the way.