Throughout history, there have been countless athletes who were born with great talents and physical skill, but who somehow never really lived up to their promise. We can all probably think of a few people we knew who showed great potential early in their lives, but who somehow never quite knuckled down and applied themselves. And you can also probably think of people who started out with relatively average or even below average capabilities, who went on to make the very most of their potential through their dedication, resilience, and absolute commitment to becoming the best they could be.
There is a growing body of research that shows the importance of grit – our capacity to dig deep and keep going even in the face of great challenges – and how this capacity is a highly accurate predictor of success in many domains of life. For example, a 2007 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that the single biggest predictor of whether new army cadets would manage to complete a brutally harsh summer training program was their level of grit. Not intelligence, not fitness, not their leadership capabilities, but purely their capacity to keep going, to prove to themselves and others that they could do it.
And this attitude is learnable. In fact, grit comes down to three core elements.
One: You need to develop a robust self-concept. This means that when you think of yourself, you acknowledge your strengths and you also accept that you are a work in progress. We all experience setbacks sometimes. All athletes sometimes experience losses or injuries and that doesn’t mean that you’re a failure or that you don’t have some natural gifts or talents worth nurturing and developing. It just means you’re human, like all of us; you’re a work in progress and your body and brain are always capable of learning and improving.
Two: You need to become skilled at managing your state of mind, so that no matter what happens, no matter what kind of day you’ve been having, you can activate a laser-like focus and instantly get into the zone. This is something that you can develop, just like building a muscle. It can be very helpful to start deliberately doing things that are uncomfortable, such as taking ice cold showers or setting your alarm half an hour earlier to do more training in the morning. By pushing yourself a little further every day, every week, every month, you’ll find yourself building a foundation of solid, positive habits and a will of iron that allows you to succeed in ways you once could have never imagined.
And three: Grit involves staying connected to the “why”, the purpose, the meaning in what you’re doing. This purpose could be to prove to yourself or others that you can do something or it can be a sense of there being a moral imperative, that developing yourself to your full potential is simply the right thing to do to make the most of your life and the gifts you’ve been given.
Peak Performance Hypnotherapy is designed to help you absorb and internalize these core elements of grit, so that you naturally develop supreme mental toughness in yourself and in your life.