Developing Your Mental Resilience

Do you feel like your mental capacity is draining away most of the time? Where you've got so much pressure going on working in such a high-performance arena that you just can't think straight and mentally, you are exhausted. I know how that feels. It’s something that had a major hold on me and cost me a lot of happiness and my health.?

So, stick with me because this week I want to talk about how we can change that together so that you become stronger mentally when you need to be. ?

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, leadership and sustainable performance coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around resilience - going from being stressed all the time to feeling strong - by helping you develop your mental resilience.?

Over the last few weeks, we've been talking about resilience, what it is and what it isn't. It’s not about toughening up, hardening up, or eating concrete and pushing through all the time. It’s about asking for help, being vulnerable, and looking after yourself.?

We discussed the 4 types of resilience: physical resilience, emotional resilience, mental resilience, and social resilience. We talked about physical and emotional resilience over the last couple of weeks, so today, I want to focus on your mental resilience.?

Now, to have this conversation with you today, I want to make a distinction between two things. On one hand, we have mental toughness, and on the other, we have mental resilience. Sometimes people put them in the same box, but they are not the same. They are totally different, and I want to make sure that you understand what they are. Using the wrong strategies to develop one, when you need the other, won’t help you—it will harm you.?

Mental resilience is essential for sustaining your performance over time and maintaining your health and well-being. It’s a vitally important part of your leadership development—firstly, for yourself, and also for everyone else in your workplace.?

So, let’s have a look at the two—and see what makes them different.?

Mental toughness is about pushing through. It’s all about maintaining high performance under intense pressure. It’s needed when the pressure is intense, or there’s a lot of adversity. ?

Mental resilience, however, focuses more on adapting to adversity, maintaining emotional balance (as we talked about last week), and recovering from setbacks.?

Mental toughness is needed for high-performance situations, but mental resilience ensures longevity. Mental resilience is what you want to maintain at all times.?

The key distinction is that resilience emphasises bouncing back, while toughness focuses on sustaining performance in high-stress situations.?

Let us look at 3 key differences between them:?

1. Adapting vs. Enduring?

Mental resilience is about adapting to change and returning to a balanced state after you face the challenge. Mental toughness is about enduring pressure and persisting, even in difficulties, without losing focus or drive.?

When you rely only on mental toughness over time, it exhausts you. It’s essential to use mental toughness sparingly—at specific times in your role—while maintaining balance and looking after yourself, so you can recover through adversity. ?

You need to make sure that you’ve got that balance between enduring and adapting.?

Adapting means being able to navigate change in a healthy way....

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.grantherbert.com/blog/developing-your-mental-resilience

Grant Herbert (aka The People Builder) describes himself as an ordinary guy, with an outstanding wife and 5 amazing kids, who has a passion to help people escape the performance trap and regain their authenticity in every area of life. He is a VUCA Leadership Mentor, Sustainable Performance Coach, Master Coach Trainer in Social and Emotional Intelligence,?and the founder of People Builders.

Visit www.grantherbert.com to find out how you can connect.