Mental Toughness - The Component Parts 

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Second in the Blog series - Mental Toughness - What is it? Paul Caffery, MD of ResultsResults, explains the components of Mental Toughness - Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence. plus the opportunity to ask him a question directly!

JC "Paul, you've told us that there are four component parts to Mental Toughness - Control, Commitment, Challenge  and Confidence, can you expand on what each of these means? Lets start with Control"

PC "Certainly Julie. Control, in mental toughness terms, can be explained in two dimensions - Life Control and Emotional Control. If someone has a high level of Life Control it means that they really believe they can do anything they can set their mind to. Having a high level of Emotional Control means they can manage both their own emotions and the emotions of others.

JC "How would that benefit someone?"

PC "Well if you have high levels of control you are more easily able to focus on facts and reality without getting drawn into assumptions (misled) and less likely to feel that you cannot make progress because of the way that somebody else is 'acting up'......."

JC "Great. What about Commitment?"

PC "Commitment is about Goal Setting and Achieving. People with high levels of mental toughness enjoy setting themselves goals and doing whatever it takes to keep their promises and achieve these goals!"

JC "Thats how we like people to be! Okay, what about Challenge?"

PC "When we are talking mental toughness, Challenge is about Drive and Adaptability. People with high levels of mental toughness learn from experience and take calculated risks, they see setbacks as an opportunity to learn and they will push to succeed"

JC "Right so someone who is mentally tough will not just give up at the first sign of an obstacle, they will keep trying, and adapt their approach if required. And Confidence?"

PC "Confidence is about having the ability (or being able to acquire the ability) and the interpersonal confidence to influence others in order to get their 'buy-in' to ensure you can complete a piece of work or project. Also having the confidence and ability to stand your own ground when necesssary!"

JC "Brilliant! Sounds like my sort of person"

PC "Yes, they are great people to have around if you are serious about driving improvements through your business, and sustaining them. However, please remember my health warning  - managers have a responsibility to manage the environment and processes at work so that unnecesssary stresses are removed from the workplace. My top tip is to find people within the organisation with high levels of mental toughness and get them to help you"

JC " Thanks Paul, another great tip!"

If you have any questions about Mental Toughness and the MTQ48, use the form below to ask Paul directly