How To Build Mental Stamina And Resilience

how-to-build-mental-stamina-and-resilience

We’ve all got a juggling act going on these days.

There’s just so much pressure to experience all that life has to offer.

We feel that we should be excelling in our careers by either climbing the corporate ladder, or growing our side hustles, and businesses… this alongside experiencing daily personal growth, looking and feeling as fit as a flee, traveling to faraway places to experience new cultures…and all while being a great parent, friend, son or daughter, and providing support to our nearest and dearest.

Oh, the pressure!

And with the rise in social media platforms showcasing everyone’s highlight reels and perfectly cropped images don’t help our FOMO either!

There is so much available to us now, and while this is a positive thing, it can put an enormous amount of pressure on us.

It can negatively impact our mental health, as well as our physical health, which can plummet at the expense of trying to achieve more and do more.
We can succumb to fad diets, poor self-care regimes, rash decision making, bad investments (of both time and money) all to get ahead quicker and faster, which actually ends up sending us backward.

Turning to quick fixes, not booking in the time with yourself to think clearly and plan ahead, and putting everybody else’s needs ahead of your own (your boss, your clients, your friends, your family etc.) it’s not the recipe for a happy life, well, not for you anyway.

Life can be demanding, and there are times when you need to put the hours in for sure, but something has gotta give eventually, so to manage yourself effectively under the pressure of all that life throws at you, you need to know your limitations, and you must build your stamina and resilience, from the inside out.

…Why do I say from the inside out?

Because so many try to build it from the outside in!

At the very basic level, you must fuel your mind and body correctly to be optimal in your performance.

That means balanced and nutritious meals, ample sleep, and plenty of water. And that’s at the very basic level.

If we go up a level then that would be:

  • Eliminating unnecessary distractions in the form of unsupportive, or toxic, people that you work with, or socialise with.
  • Mindless scrolling on social media – that ain’t fuelling you correctly.
  • And your preferred procrastination exercise (we’ve all got them!) – that’s not getting you further along with things either.

All these things cloud your thinking and drain your energy which doesn’t increase your resilience, or build your stamina.

You want to be finding focus in all areas.

Focus with your food, your fitness, your finances, your family, and your fulfilment.

When you are focused you won’t veer off track. And you can create focus in any area through preparing and planning.

Preparing and planning anything in advance forces you to think of all eventualities, to consider lots of different aspects of the thing (or area) of your life that you are planning and it builds up resilience.

It provides a solid foundation and management system for you to not only work from but also to easily identify what is working and what isn’t so that you can adjust your output (or efforts) accordingly to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve.

If you’re not following a plan then you are easily distracted and will react to whatever comes up around you.

And when you are reacting to everything around you then it gets messy;  you trip up, and you get side-tracked in many different directions.

Now, planning isn’t light work – well, it’s not when done correctly – but it’s necessary to not only manage your time effectively but also to leverage it.

Putting those extra hours in of planning and preparing eliminates some of the stress with decision-making later on and provides some stable ground for you to confidently walk on.

So, something actionable for you today. If you don’t want to fully immerse yourself in a full-blown life plan right now then just plan out your day tomorrow.

I roughly plan my weeks in advance, and then I plan my day both the night before and first thing in the morning around 6am.

I note down what I need to do the previous day and I book it in time slots the following morning for the day ahead.

I do this because I like to give myself a little flexibility and choose what I’m in the mood for. Sometimes I wake up in creative mode, other times not so much. So I like to utilise my natural flow as much as possible.

So, my little challenge to you is to plan for the next 7 days. And plan each day out with time slots either the night before, or on the day, and see how much more you accomplish and how much further you get towards wherever you want to go.

You can apply this to preparing food in advance, booking workouts, tackling work projects, and even seeing friends and family for social time.

The planning process builds your resilience as it forces you into a better perspective and will help you eliminate anything that doesn’t support your end goals. It gets you to really hone in on the actions that will make the most difference and gets you working and performing smarter as well as living better overall.

So tell me, are you already a meticulous planner? Or do you think you could benefit from putting some extra time into planning and preparing for things?

And if so, which area of your life would benefit the most from some TLC in the planning department?

Drop it in the comments or come and chat to me over on instagram.

On Key

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