Brain Power Burns
“You have to train your brain to be positive just like you work out your body.” -Shawn Achor
While navigating through this thing we call life, staying healthy, being a productive member of society, law-abiding, and trying to become the best version of myself; the main thing that goes through my mind 24 hours a day is not “crashing out”. What it means to crash out as a man is to do something that will be drastic and can severely negatively affect your future. Whether it’s staying in a relationship or marriage that can destroy you emotionally, physically, and financially; trusting the wrong person to live with, or not managing your money effectively; etc.
There are a plethora of things that can happen to a man that can lead to him crashing out, but no matter the fuck up, setback, or mistake; the most important thing to do as a man is to find any way possible to gain some mental toughness. Mental toughness is not a quality you either do or do not have. Sure, some people may have greater self-discipline than you possess. Some people are better at resisting temptation than you are, but that’s probably not because they were born with a certain special something inside of them, instead they’ve found ways to develop mental toughness and use it when it really matters.
I’m mentally strong because I’ve taught myself how to be, learned the laws of human nature, and studied informative psychological practices that will benefit me in the long run. Here are the 4 main ways I trained my brain and learned how to remain mentally tough even in my hardest times:
1. I see my past as valuable training and nothing more.
My past is valuable, I learned from my mistakes, and the mistakes of others, then let it go. Easier said than done? It depends on your perspective. When something bad happens to me, I see it as an opportunity to learn something I didn’t know. When another person makes a mistake, I don’t just learn from it, I see it as an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and mindful. My past is just training, it doesn't define me. I think about what went wrong but only in terms of how I will make sure that next time, I and the people around me will know how to make sure it goes right.
2. I actively celebrate the success of others.
Many people, I guarantee you know at least a few see success as a zero-sum game. Their mindset is that there’s only so much to go around, so if someone else shines, they think that diminishes the light from their star. Resentment sucks up a massive amount of mental energy, the energy that can be applied elsewhere to something that can bring value to your own life. When a friend, family member, or associate does something profound, that doesn’t preclude me from doing something just as great. Where success is concerned, birds of a feather tend to flock together, so it draws my successful peers even closer. I never resent people in my life for doing great things, I create and celebrate awesomeness, wherever I find it, and in time I’ll find even more of it in myself.
3. I constantly review my long-term goals.
My late uncle always told me that mental fatigue makes us take the easy way out even though the easy way takes us the wrong way. That is why I need to maintain tangible reminders to pull myself back from the impulse brink. I try to think of moments when I was most likely to give in to the impulses that took me further away from my long-term goals. Then, I use more tangible reminders of those long-term goals to interrupt the impulse and keep me on track.
4. I count my blessings.
Every night I’m blessed to still be on this earth, I take a second to turn out the lights and, in that moment, quit worrying about what I don’t have. I’ve mastered the art of not worrying about what others have that I don’t, I use it as motivation. Plus, I focus way too much on what I do have, and I do have a lot to be thankful for. It honestly feels good to have that mindset, and it automatically makes me feel better about myself. To me, this is the best possible way to recharge my mental battery.
-Robeir B