Creating mental toughness

Mental toughness is a characteristic that helps you overcome adversity and remain focused on what is truly important. When difficult situations come around, you will be challenged and a strong mental framework is necessary to overcome such challenges.

Let's dive into 3 tips that can help you to create more mental toughness.

Focus on what you can control. As humans in general we tend to overthink and worry about external factors over which we have no control. Such factors are other people’s opinions or outcomes of certain events. A quick trading-related example would be to worry about the outcome of a trade after you have entered it as per your trading plan.

Put your energy and focus into areas that you can control such as controlling your own emotions, actions, and perception. Worry will not bring you solutions, analytical thoughts will!

Seek discomfort regularly. Mental toughness is built from overcoming adversity regularly. Most people seek comfort in their routine and environment because it’s safe. The moment adversity hits, they get in distress. You can build mental toughness by deliberately getting yourself into uncomfortable situations. Are you a shy person? Set a daily goal of getting into an in-person conversation with two strangers throughout your day. Do you have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning? Set an alarm at 5:00 and force yourself out of bed. By seeking discomfort regularly you shake up your mind, you become more responsive and develop mental toughness.

Become aware of your thoughts and emotions before they take control over you. This is such an important element for traders especially. In order to be mentally strong, you have to be aware of how your thoughts and emotions can influence your behavior. You have to learn to recognize when your emotional state is changing, only then can you rationalize and limit emotional interference in your decision-making. If you don’t know what is throwing you off internally, you can not protect yourself from it!

Following these 3 steps will help you to be better prepared for challenging situations. Find out in which area you struggle and try the method that fits best.

Speak to you soon!

Kind regards,

Joost