Mental toughness is not a trait we are born with, it is an acquired trait. Athletes learn how to be mentally tough through everyday workouts and the big games, matches or races that we spend the whole season preparing for. Athletes expect to be challenged many times in their journey forward to reach their goal which is why mental toughness is vital in any athletes journey. The more you learn, the more mental toughness you gain. The more mental toughness you have, the better off you are when your A race comes around the corner. I've spent a lot of time researching mental toughness, as well as having personal experiences of the concept of mental toughness; after all, the title of my blog, is my mental toughness in a short phrase. So, what has my research and my personal experiences taught me about this oh so important trait that athletes continue to learn about? Well, I shall
tell you.
1. Physical Fitness
For me, this is a no brainer. If I step foot into transition at 5:00a.m, having only trained 10 hours a week for 3 weeks prior to my biggest race of the season, I'm going to be an emotional wreck. I will have doubts and there will be nothing that I can do to change my outcome. Once I get doubts, there is not much I can do except pray. However, there is not much I can do if I am undertrained and underprepared. At this point, I am mentally weak. Thus, why I believe physical fitness is foremost trait in my mental toughness. I know this scenario will not happen because of my coach and my own stubbornness and willingness to compete and be a better athlete. Physical fitness and having a chance to challenge your body and mind before your A race is key to building that mental toughness.
2. Self-Belief
I can follow my workouts to a tee, I can put up solid outputs, great paces and zones, but if I don't believe in myself, then it's game over. When you have self-belief in yourself, you feel like you can do just about anything, that the sky's the limit. During these wonderful moments you don't fear the race. It's like the fear of losing is completely nonexistent when you're believing in yourself. Everyone falters in their own self-belief, but what makes you strong is believing you are worth it. (What are you worth? That's for you to figure out!) 3. Positive Attitude
You are not going to be able to do everything. By focusing on your strengths, your physical fitness, and your self-belief, you gain confidence and inspiration; you create your own positive attitude.
4. Motivation
Motivation can be strengthed many ways. Think of the last time you failed (in anything). That feeling can provide the motivation to keep going, keep pushing, keep practicing and keep making yourself better. Keep building that mental toughness. A time of success can also provide motivation to reclaim that winning feeling. For me, I'm motivated by many people and things. I'm motivated by my sister, Julie Patterson, who got me into the sport. I'm motivated by my coach, Dan Szajta, who continues to shine and grow in his own triathlon career. I'm motivated by the simplest of things. I'm motivated by continuously wanting to improve myself. I'm motivated by so many things (maybe that should be my next blog)! Motivation must come from within and the intensity of your motivation is determined by how badly you want to perform well. If you have motivation, you have mental toughness.
5. Focus
The ability to focus in the face of distractions or unexpected circumstances says a lot about your mental toughness. The mentally tough don't avoid situations, but instead, address them right away. For example, my first 40 miles of B2B. I was hurting real bad, the wind was nearly blowing me off the bike, my heart rate was through the roof and every time I saw an official, I thought about withdrawing from the race and taking the DNF. At mile 40, that was my time I had to hunker down and focus. I just kept reminding myself of the things that had gotten me to this point, the things on this list. I had to focus on my breaths. I had to focus on my legs and the pedaling. I had to focus on slowing my heart rate while still pounding my legs. Focusing on the things I could control got me to that finish line (and got me to negative split the back half of my bike). 6. Resiliency
The ability to bounce back from adversity, pain or a disappointing performance says a lot about mental toughness. The mentally tough can realize and admit a mistake, understand a missed opportunity, learn from it and move on to focus on a goal ahead. The mentally tough remain optimistic and have a positive attitude (#3) when something bad happens. For me, that something bad was my IT band injury. I realized and admitted that I pushed myself too hard, too fast, and got injured. Because of this, I missed out on my first season as an Olympic and half distance triathlete, but was an awesome Olympic and half distance aquabiker. With the help of my coach, I am learning from my actions of pushing too hard, and am in PT, focusing on cautiously entering the running world again in the new year. I am focusing on the two (or 3) half distance triathlons I will be competing in 2016.
7. Open-Mindedness/Flexibility
Mentally tough people are flexible and are always adapting. The mentally tough are willing to listen and take feedback knowing that's where real changes take place. The mentally tough know that fear of change if paralyzing and a major threat to their success and happiness. Only when the mentally tough embrace change can you find the good in it. You need to have an open mind and open arms if you're going to recognize the opportunities that change creates. You're setting yourself us to fail when you keep doing the same things you always have in the hope that ignoring change will make it go away. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I accepted change earlier this year by accepting Dan to be my coach. His methods are the exact opposite of my previous training and that presented a scary thought to me. Frustrations and hostility are two words to describe the first two months. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, it was just my lack of open-mindedness and ability to accept change. My mind is now open and willing to accept change as I have seen the good that has come from my huge coach change.So, mental toughness is not an innate trait. You have to want to be tough. You have to want it. Now, what you want can be totally different from the athlete next to you wants. A good friend of mine and new teammate, Meghan, is very mentally tough and I'm motivated by her. Having only started running a year ago, she has run two full marathons and has signed up for Ironman Lake Placid in 2016. Now, her goals and my goals are very different, but it doesn't make either of us any less of an athlete or have any less mental toughness than each other. So, how much mental toughness do you have?
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