Mental strength is a modern-day “superpower”: It is a person’s ability to effectively deal with the stress, pressures, and challenges of everyday life and perform to their best ability, regardless of the circumstances.
Mentally strong people can regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors – especially in difficult situations – and can handle criticism.
How well do you handle criticism?
It is never easy to accept criticism, even if it is constructive. However, while it may be difficult to accept at first, criticism will ultimately help you improve.
Do you control your thoughts?
Often, when we hear a negative comment, our minds “run” to create exaggerated and negative scenarios, a habit that can damage our psychology.
It is important to control our thoughts and not allow negative scenarios to overwhelm us.
One way to do this is to ask ourselves logical questions and take the time to come to a balanced and realistic view of things, free from emotionalism.
Who do you allow to criticize you?
Your boss at work or your chosen life partner may offer you feedback and expect you to consider it carefully. But your third cousin who loves to lecture you during family gatherings about how you should do your job, even though he or she has no experience in your field? Not so much.
It’s important to share our thoughts and problems with people we care about. If we get stuck on a problem, our objective perception can be limited.
That’s why it’s important to also listen to the opinion of someone we trust. This person, as an outside observer, can objectively look at the problem and offer us a different perspective, finding more options than we might have thought of on our own. This person could be your colleague, partner, friend, or even your sibling.
Self-confidence strengthens your mental strength
The relationship between self-confidence and achievement is undeniable. Building and maintaining our self-confidence
- Prepares us to accept criticism.
- It encourages us to overcome the fear of failure and manage self-doubt.
- It stops comparing ourselves to others and seeking validation.
- It gives us the impetus to overcome the “imposter syndrome”
- Just because someone has self-confidence does not mean that they believe they are the best at everything, but neither should they hide their strengths. Thanks to a correct self-assessment, we can make the right decisions and learn to ask for help when necessary.
