Do You Possess the Mental Toughness Required to Succeed as an Entrepreneur?
Perhaps I’m suffering from “Olympics Fever”, but I see a lot of similarities between the athletes and entrepreneurs. In order to be a contender, they must practice daily, endure unpredictable conditions, and maintain mental toughness at all times.
As an online entrepreneur you must practice these things daily:
* Writing – this is the core activity that will take you and your business to the next level as an entrepreneur. Write every day, and that includes email messages, blog posts, reports, white papers, and books.
* Creating – the idea is to create one new simple product each month until you have at least a dozen, and then create more sophisticated products and courses on a schedule that works for you.
* Marketing – you can write and create until you’re old and gray, but nothing happens until you embrace the idea of sharing it far and wide with your prospects and clients.
* Learning – for those who thought entrepreneurship meant an end to learning, nothing could be further from the truth. Find joy in learning new things and you will prosper.
We are still pioneers in this world of online entrepreneurship, and we will continue to experience some unpredictable conditions when it comes to the technology, competition, and our own skills. While I relish the thought of being among the first wave of people earning an income by doing what we love, all from the comfort of our own home or from wherever in the world we happen to be, I know that I must maintain a mental toughness that is more powerful than any adversity, struggle, or challenge that comes my way.
Only the mentally tough survive, and once you reach this level you’ll believe you can conquer the world.
This is what author and thought leader James Clear has to say on this topic of mental toughness, in his post entitled “The Science of Developing Mental Toughness in Your Health, Work, and Life“:
Research is starting to reveal that your mental toughness — or “grit” as they call it — plays a more important role than anything else for achieving your goals in health, business, and life. That’s good news because you can’t do much about the genes you were born with, but you can do a lot to develop mental toughness.
In every area of life — from your education to your work to your health — it is your amount of grit, mental toughness, and perseverance that predicts your level of success more than any other factor we can find.
In other words, talent is overrated.
What do YOU think? Have you allowed strong winds and previous injuries to keep you from skiing the
Super-G or giant slalom in your business, putting forth your gold medal performance each day? Or do
you have the mental toughness to succeed?
I loved the book ‘Grit’ 🙂 Did you happen to read it Connie? You’d love it if you haven’t.
Great points Connie. I would also say “trusting the process” is so important. Instead of letting the little gremlin in my head say “this isn’t working” and trying to be mentally tough, it can be the letting go.
If I trust in the proven system, that moves me forward, and I can tell that little gremlin, thanks for sharing but I’m busy building my future.
People who have resilience can manage stress better, which means they are less likely to develop mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. You can learn coping skills to build your resilience and ensure good mental health.
You are so right. Mental toughness and resilience make a huge difference in the level of stress in our lives, as well as helping to ensure good mental health.
Connie Ragen Green