Mental Toughness – Want Some?

One thing that I have grown up around all my life is tough minded people. I am blessed and lucky…..Thank You! Many ranchers and farmers are all working toward the same goal, to make a living. I was always told to toughen up when I would complain about not wanting to work. Little did I realize that some of the work that had to be done would carry over into sports and in life in general.

If you are a high school athlete, you know that minimal work will get you kicked off of the team. You also know that to make it to the next level, it requires twice the work it did in high school.

Fortunately for me, I was able to develop a side of that mental toughness component that would take me from the cows and horses of Wyoming to a division 1 national power house football program in Nebraska.

How?

Before my sports career had started, I had always wanted to be a part of a big time sports program. It was with one specific university though, not just any. Every day I would wake up thinking about what I had to do to get there! What was it going to take? I would think about these things while I was doing small chores that were assigned to me from time to time. I would not only think about what it might take, but I would visualize it as well.

I would see it in my mind until it became my reality. This didn’t happen overnight, but took time. It took seven years before I hit my goal. This world is filled with instant gratification.

When people don’t get what they want the second they want it, they quit. There’s no work ethic, no patience, and no mental toughness. What happened to the real men and women that built this country with their bare hands? Why are we over weight as a society? Why in the hell don’t people want to work for anything anymore?

Belief!

Some don’t believe they can, so they won’t, and they are right. Whatever we continue to tell ourselves is what we will be. If you think you are weak, you are. If you don’t think you can do anything about it, you can’t. Not until we change our internal representation of how we think of ourselves, will we ever change. Its daily unforced mental ideas, thoughts, and actions that will lead you to success. This mental process has to be done daily or the power behind what you want to do will be decreased.

I want to become the best athlete I can be, but how do I do this? It’s not enough to tell someone that they need to work out. It’s not enough to tell someone that they need to eat better to perform better. If you are not getting the results you want, you have not failed enough. Only when we fail do we figure out what it takes to succeed. The failure is the seed to success!

My weed out rate in the gym is high. Why? People are not mentally tough enough to figure out that it is because of THEIR weaknesses they are quitters. Many are too lazy, not strong enough (mentally), excuse makers. Only if they were to realize that by failing they are succeeding, would they make the decision to become better. This would create enough momentum for them to become unstoppable IN TIME.

Suns Out Guns Out!

If you want to get somewhere good, you have to work at it. It has taken me thousands of hours in the gym to get stronger and more developed. I’m not the biggest, baddest mo fo on the planet, but I can move when I need to move and get things done when they need to be done. I don’t have to worry about taking breaks to catch my breath or about not having enough strength to complete a task; which feels awesome. And as a bonus, if the suns out, the guns are out! Every Friday and possibly into the weekends, is suns out, guns out day. We work hard in the gym so enjoy it while you can because gravity will eventually win us all over.

That’s trained tuff with some armed and equipped action on ya.

Phase 4 kill mode!