10 Mental Toughness Strategies

1. First, always seek professional advice and assistance. Make sure your doctor has cleared you for any weight control and fitness program you undertake.
   
   
2. Second, awareness is the gateway to change. You need some system that will alert you to how, when and what you eat, and how and when you exercise. Many people expect the same health results without changing anything. That's the definition of insanity. You need a food and exercise journal or some tool that creates a record of your actions and inactions. We humans fool ourselves far too easily by trusting our memory. Write down what you are doing and you will ramp up your awareness very powerfully.
   
   
3. Ask a few people to honestly tell you how your body, fitness and health look to them. Don't be defensive. Just listen to them. You may be shocked, and that's a good thing. If you think you look fine, and they are concerned, you have a gap there. That gap is what you will be dealing with in your program.
   
   
4. If you are NOT very UNHAPPY with where you are NOW, you won't be deeply motivated to make the necessary changes to get where you want to GO. It is a GOOD thing now to take an honest look at your health and fitness levels, and be shocked, disgusted, appalled, upset, alarmed, scared and depressed.
   
   
5. The more PAIN you can create within yourself now about where you stand with your weight control and fitness, the more MOTIVATION you will create to start, continue and succeed at a personal improvement regimen.
   
   
6. Fitness and weight changes work best when done from the inside-out, rather than the outside-in. What that means is, discover WHY you want to change, what the internal RESISTANCES are that may hold you back, and how you will adjust your ATTITUDE to bring those changes about.
   
   
7. Will power comes from powerful, insightful motivation, and the belief that what you are doing makes sense, is good, helps you, and that you do NOT want to go BACK to the lifestyle you are leaving. Once you set your mind to a new life this is key. If you continually backslide you have not done the foundational work of personal exploration that uncovers the subconscious motivators and roadblocks to a new life.
   
   
8. Make a commitment with yourself to stay true to your program. That means you will make smart daily decisions about your weight control and fitness program, even when you don't FEEL like it.
   
   
9. Choose GROWTH over COMFORT in your program, and you will make steady progress.
   
   
10. As you execute your program you will face hunger pains, physical pains and psychic/emotional pains. The PAIN you encounter in your quest for success CAN be overcome. When you butt your head up against it, rejoice. THAT is the exact place you need to be to create REAL results. Enter that painful place, go THROUGH it, and take PRIDE in your overcoming that pain to move through the other side of it to reach your goals.
    

For a comprehensive overview of your mental abilities you need an assessment instrument that identifies your complete mental strengths and weaknesses. Here is a free, easy-to-take 65-item sport psychology assessment tool you can score right on the spot. This assessment gives you a quick snapshot of your strengths and weaknesses in your mental game. You can use this as a guide in creating your own mental training program, or as the basis for a program you undertake with mental coach Bill Cole, MS, MA to improve your mental game. This assessment would be an excellent first step to help you get the big picture about your mental game.