Improve your mental toughness with this exercise

[MILIANARD134]

One of my favorite activities is to run at night. I mean, when there is litteraly no one in the street, in the woods, wherever you are.
When i was training for my marathon, my main issue was : mental toughness. I was so tricky, tells my mind to top at 5km when i was training, or 'it's enough'.
Then I needed something to push me harder, something that i could not step away.

I started running in the night, with no flashlight, and in hard places. Woods, hood, near abandoned parks. Everything to scare the F*ck out of me.
At first I was running 10 km then at 8 I was stopping. So I tried to implement this little thing, to improve.
When I run I go for 1kilometer, only one. Then I push it again and again, when the 1 kilometer bar was check, i push it to 2, then 3.
Then all this shit went to 27 kilometer. At night. No flashlight. No backup plan. You have to keep your energy in case of emergency.
And regulate your breath.

You don't need to do this in the hood or in the wood like i did. You can do this in the street. But here is the deal. I promise you, if you start your run by saying in your head "I'm gonna only do 1km" And push this till you cant no more i mean really no more. Like your so exhausted you gonna fall. Everything you found overwhelming before will be so easy.

It's a good exercise to train your ability to face unexpected obstacles and events. If you guys do it, tells me what are your results !

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tourmaline]

Interesting brain hack

 

[Devilery]

Can attest to this in sports and business.
Whenever I swim, cycle, run, lift, write or even do household tasks, I often use this technique: "Just one more lap, just one more rep, just write the headlines, and then you can stop."
Using this approach, I always do everything as planned or even more.

I have days when I don't feel like writing. Where I think about the massive amount of research, planning and countless edits. I tend to get overwhelmed, so to counter it, I set small, step-by-step goals.
Instead of creating the full content, I'll just say to myself: "Make an outline, just structurize the headlines, you can continue with the rest tomorrow." Few hours later, I have spent hours researching and have a rough draft done.

The bottom line: Do have the big picture in mind, but focus only on the next step.

Just: "Put your running shoes and go for a short walk!" In 99% cases you will have another 5k, 10k or even more done!

 

[NursingTn]

Mental resilience is a difficult skill to develop for many people. It is uncomfortable to develop mental fortitude when it entails going out of your comfort zone frequently.

In my experience, I've become emotionally stronger by doing one thing:

Exposure hierarchy. Basically, list ten to fifteen tiny steps leading up to the main task that you find uncomfortable or fearful to do.

For example, I find cold talking to people still mentally uncomfortable. Perhaps it's fear of rejection, fear of awkwardness, whatever. But it is getting easier for me to do when I made this list:

1) just visualize people
2) think about talking to people
3) look up people on social media
4) add people on social media
5) say hi to people on social media
6) walk around in public
7) look at one person in the eyes in real life
8) say hi to one person in real life
9) hold a conversation with one person
10) talk to two persons out on the street daily

The point is to accomplish one task until it no longer is mentally scary or uncomfortable, and only then do you progress to the next task. Rinse and repeat until you get to the ultimate goal, which for me is to talk to two people everyday. It's my idea of what it means to cold talk to people.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Olimac21]

Can attest to this in sports and business.
Whenever I swim, cycle, run, lift, write or even do household tasks, I often use this technique: "Just one more lap, just one more rep, just write the headlines, and then you can stop."
Using this approach, I always do everything as planned or even more.

I have days when I don't feel like writing. Where I think about the massive amount of research, planning and countless edits. I tend to get overwhelmed, so to counter it, I set small, step-by-step goals.
Instead of creating the full content, I'll just say to myself: "Make an outline, just structurize the headlines, you can continue with the rest tomorrow." Few hours later, I have spent hours researching and have a rough draft done.

The bottom line: Do have the big picture in mind, but focus only on the next step.

Just: "Put your running shoes and go for a short walk!" In 99% cases you will have another 5k, 10k or even more done!

This is brilliant, I call it in my head "focus on the next step" only and then you move from there. Thanks for sharing.