Are You TOUGH Enough? How To Be Mentally & Physically Strong

Have you ever wondered why some people accomplish their goals while others fail?  Why some people thrive while others only survive?

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.

In order to be successful in life, you need to develop your physical and mental capabilities.  Arnold  Schwarzenegger once said, “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens.”

You need to treat your mind as if it were a muscle;  you need to develop a strong mindset in order to step out of your comfort zone and persevere beyond life's challenges.  Always remember that your mind is stronger than your body. Your mindset is your ultimate source of energy.

Ask yourself, “How tough am I?”  Do you throw in the towel and give up when things get uncomfortable?  Are you coming up short in life because you aren't tough enough?

If the answer is yes, take a moment to envision what your life would be like if you pushed passed those moments of wanting to give up?

Studies suggest that being able to withstand the discomfort and negative emotions — like fear, anxiety, anger, frustration or guilt — that come from facing into difficult challenges is what actually allows us to become stronger, wiser, more mentally agile, and eventually happier.

Your ability to feel through pain and discomfort is where the real growth lies.  The choice is yours.

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Video transcript

What's up, everyone? This is Stefan, from ProjectLifeMastery.com, and in this video, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about toughness; being mentally and being physically tough, being strong. You're going to need to be, if you want to be successful in your life.  In any endeavor that you take, you've got to be tough.

If you want to prosper in business, and not just survive, but to thrive, you've got to be mentally tough. If you want to have a physically fit body, you've got to be tough. If you want to have an amazing relationship, if you want to achieve any goal, any desire, any dream that you might have for your life, it's not going to be easy.

If it was easy, then you'd already have it by now. Everyone else would have a healthy, fit body, and be multi-millionaires, if it was that easy, but it's not. It's going to require you to go through some pain and discomfort. Your capability to handle and deal with pain and discomfort is going to be based on your toughness, your ability to me mentally and physically tough.

Now, your mind and body, they go together

I believe that the more that I develop my body, I push through limits, I work out at the gym, I go for runs, I challenge my body physically – although my body is getting stronger with these activities, my mind is as well, because most of the challenges that you face physically are all mental barriers. Your body might think, “I'm exhausted. I'm tired in my body. I'm sore”.  Whatever it is, but your mind can overpower your body.

Your mind is the one that controls the body. However, your body is an amazing way to develop the mind, to develop that mental toughness, by putting yourself in challenging, tough scenarios every single day, different events of your life.  Challenge yourself physically, but also challenge and develop your mindset and your mentality.

Ultimately, developing your physical capabilities is one of the best ways to develop your mind, and vice versa. Everything is mental, guys. I can't tell you how many challenges, tough times, adversity, and failures that I've encountered in business and my personal life.  Again, my mindset and my psychology is what allows me to push past it, to push beyond it.

My question for you is: “How tough are you? Are you failing in your life? Are you coming up short because you're not tough enough?”  Again, how you know whether or not you're tough, is how you deal with discomfort and pain. When things get uncomfortable for you, do you just throw in the towel and give up?   Do you just go and watch TV? Do you just go and surf the net?

Knowing that there's an obstacle, a barrier, or some hurdle that you have to get over, do you face it, encounter it and keep going when you're tired and exhausted.  Do you push past that discomfort and pain, or do you just give up and quit?

Most people are not mentally and physically tough enough to keep going. They work on their business, and then they get tired. They don't feel like it today. They have an excuse. They have a reason. They have a story. Sure enough, they don't have the toughness to push past it, so they decide, “I'm just going to take it easy today.  I'm going to play some video games. I'm going to watch TV,” or whatever it is.

Same thing, physically. People are at the gym, they want to have this great body, but the moment that it gets uncomfortable, they say, “That was good enough. I did enough today.” They don't push themselves beyond that.

There's a great quote by Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the movie Pumping Iron about building muscle.  I don't remember the exact quote, but he said, “What separates a champion from a loser is their willingness to go through the pain period.” There's a pain period in any endeavor of life. There's a moment where things get uncomfortable, painful, and challenging.

It's outside of your comfort zone. Your willingness to push beyond that, to keep going, to feel that pain and discomfort, even though you're scared, but you keep going anyway. You keep pushing yourself a little bit more. Those last few reps. If you're doing 10 reps, the real growth is on rep 11, 12, and 13. It's pushing beyond that, guys.

I just completed a Tough Mudder

That's what brings up this whole subject for today's video. You guys can see, I've got my Tough Mudder finisher shirt, 2016. It was one of my goals this year. If you guys don't know what Tough Mudder is, I highly recommend you check it out. It's basically an obstacle course. The one that I did in Whistler was 19 kilometers, 23 obstacles I think, and there are thousands of people that do it ever year.

Not everybody finishes it. It's really a test to see how tough you are, both mentally and physically. You're working with a team, and there's a lot of amazing life lessons that you can pull from that, and I'll share with you guys a little bit about my experience because there's a lot of little metaphors. A lot of little moments that are directly applicable to my everyday life, and hopefully your life as well.

As you guys know, I shared on my monthly goals report, this is my goal. My physical goal for the year. I've been training for it. A lot of you guys have seen me on Snapchat. I share my morning routines, and I'm on the treadmill and all that sort of stuff. I'm working out twice a day, to prepare myself for this moment. For this event.

To make sure that I'm prepared, mentally and physically, for the adversity that I'm about to face and encounter. That's called playing it smart, guys. If you know that there's going to be adversity, challenges and failures in your life, you've got to prepare for that now. You've got to prepare now, to make sure that your mindset, your body, and everything is prepared to endure the path that you're going to embark on.

The path of success and the path of business are not easy paths. Very few people make it through it. There's a lot of people that give up on those paths, but, again, if you condition yourself every day for that and prepare yourself; you read books, you study, you develop your mind, you improve yourself, then you're going to be able to make it to the end.

I've been preparing for this. I got a little team together, a few friends. There's three of us. We drove up to Whistler. I live in Vancouver, so it's only two hours away. If you haven't been to Whistler, it's one of the most beautiful, mountainous, amazing places; the beauty, the outdoors. It's just incredible. We get to this place, and we're prepared.

We eat a healthy meal.  We've got everything we need to prepare for this.  I actually had a back injury, some inflammation in my lower back, which I've had before. The day before I go to this event I went to see a chiropractor.  I saw my chiropractor three times in 24 hours. I was icing my back every two hours and stretching it. Everything that I could in order to make sure that I was the best that I could be for the event.

There were thousands of people at the event.  Everyone's stoked. Everyone's excited. We cross the start line, and everybody has at it. Some of these obstacles that you're going through, one of them's called the Arctic Enema, which basically requires that you jump in freezing cold ice water, and you go under, go up, and under again.

You're soaking wet. You've got 19 kilometers to go, and it's not comfortable by any means. You're soaking wet.  You're getting blisters because your socks and shoes are soaked, and you've got to keep running. Your body tenses up and gets really tight because you're so cold. You've got to keep yourself warm the entire time.

There are obstacles like that. One of the most challenging ones was Everest. You've got to run up this half pipe, and you have people at the top that are there with their hands extended, for you to jump up and grab onto. You have people that are trying to pull you up.  There was a lot of teamwork involved in that. It's not easy.

One of them, the Funky Monkey, was the one where you go across these monkey bars, and you've got to grab a moving one, and you're swinging.  If you miss and fall, you fall into a pool of freezing water. There's another great one, I forget what it's called, but you've got to go up on this big platform. If you're afraid of heights, it's not good. You're pretty high up, and you've got to jump and grab this bar, and swing, and you try to hit a bell. Then, you just fall into this pool of water.

A lot of fun things. You've got to go under barbed wire. You've got to run through these electrical shocks. You've got to climb over stuff and under stuff. You're covered in mud, because you're running through and jumping through these big mud puddles; everything's covered in mud. It's not comfortable by any means. My team was going at it and we were doing good.  One of the guys on my team wasn't in the best shape, but because you're a team, it's not about the time. It's not about winning or losing. You're just trying to finish it as a team. Some people finish it in two hours. Other people, four or five hours. Some people, eight hours. Some people don't even finish the event.

I've learned that in life, it doesn't matter where you finish

All that matters is that you did your best. Not your best up here, your real best. Your real best comes from your heart. Your mind's best is always limited because your mind will always play tricks on you. Your mind will always say, “That's good enough,” or, “We can stop.” Or come up with a reason or excuse why you shouldnt keep going.  To be tough, you need heart, guys.

Toughness is all right in here, guys, it's not here. We thought that our friend wouldnt be able to keep up, but we decided to stay with him. We're a team, so we're going to stay with the team. We're encouraging, motivating and inspiring each other along the way. Sure enough, my friend gets these severe cramps in his leg. His leg is just cramped up, and this guy can't keep going. He's limping on one leg, only halfway through this event, guys. There was another 10 kilometers to go, and obstacles along the way, but he refused to quit.

Moments like that, guys, when things are tough and challenging, you really learn the most about yourself and other people. Do you throw in the towel? Do you just give up, or do you keep going, and finish what you said you're going to do? I've got massive respect for my friend. We supported him along the way, but it was him that had the will to finish. We carried him at times. He was limping and he was doing everything that he could; taking salt pills and electrolytes, everything to make sure that his body could keep going. Man, it was not easy.

There were times, for me, when I started cramping up as well. There were times when we were freezing cold. Up in Whistler, in the mountains, it's not super warm. It started to rain at different points, as well. You're freezing cold, and it would be so easy just to give up.

You just decide, “You know what, Im going to push past that pain and discomfort.” Along this Tough Mudder obstacle course, there were many people who just called in the towel. They gave up.  I believe that how you do anything, is how you do everything in life.  If you quit here, you're going to quit in other areas when it gets tough.  This event, this obstacle, is a representation of your entire life, your mentality. It's a reflection of that.

Sure enough, we kept going and we finished the race.  It took us five hours.  We were covered in mud. If you guys saw me on Snapchat, I was covered in mud; my face, my hands, my shoes.  At the end of it, you get this feeling of pride, joy, and confidence, that you completed something that very few people are willing to do.

Most people quit

When you face those challenging times in your life; adversity, failure, even that little bit of discomfort that you might feel on a daily basis, when you're tired, whatever it is, if you push past that, that's where the muscle is built.  That is where your strength lies.

The strength that I gain from that, I can then transfer to other areas of my life. Again, that's my business. There are moments in my business when I don't feel like doing anything. I don't feel like working. I don't feel like recording videos, but I push myself past it because I want to do what I said I was going to do. I want to get that pride, that joy, and that self-esteem at the end of it. That's what's required if you want to be successful.

My challenge for you is, how tough are you? Instead of quitting at the first signs of discomfort and challenge, what would happen if you pushed past that? What would your life be like, if you pushed past those moments where you didn't believe you can go further, but you keep pushing yourself further?

Your mind is stronger than your body. It always is, guys. That's the ultimate source, right here.  Your mindset ans your psychology is the ultimate source of energy. You've got to master your psychology if you want to be successful.

I learned so many amazing lessons from that event. The importance of teamwork and accountability, because, many times, if you're by yourself, it's very easy for you to quit when things get tough. It doesn't matter. No one else is going to see it. When you've got a team, you've got other people, you've got friends, you've got a mastermind, a coach, people are there in your corner, and can push you so much further.

It makes all the difference right there.  You get more out of yourself that you never thought was possible.  Really, the ultimate lesson, I think, is what you're truly capable of.  You're capable of so much more. Whenever you think you've done your best and that you've given it your all, there's always more to give.

Push yourself

There is always more to give, guys, remember that. Push yourself. Challenge your mind every day. Challenge yourself physically every day. For me, that's why I love going to the gym every day. I push myself to get stronger.  I push myself beyond what I thought that I could lift or run.  In doing so, I am developing my mindset.

Throughout the day push yourself a little bit further in your work day and in your job. Just because your job is 9 to 5, it doesn't mean you've got to quit at 5:00. Keep going. Push yourself a little bit more. Don't look at the clock all day at work, waiting for the next opportunity to take a break.

Have a stronger mindset than that, and push yourself further. You're capable of giving more, and, really, it's developing yourself to be able to handle those inevitable challenges, failures, and adversity, that we're all going to face in life.

You might fail. You might lose money at different moments of your life. That's real adversity. How do you prepare for that? You prepare for that today, right now.  By the little things you do in your life to develop your mindset.  If you're not prepared now, than it's going to destroy you later in your life if you're mentally weak. You've got to develop that toughness now.

Tough Mudder, guys.  Push yourself. Find events and things in your life to develop that toughness. I want you guys to leave a comment below. Let me know what you're going to do. What's your ritual every day to make sure that you're mentally tough? To make sure that you're mentally strong each day?  Maybe it's taking a cold shower each day. By doing that, again, it's something that's uncomfortable. By doing it, you develop that mental edge and toughness.

Think about what is something you could do every day to develop your mental and physical strength and toughness. Leave a comment below this video, guys.  Anytime you accomplish something, you want to celebrate it.  You want to reward yourself and reinforce it, so that in other moments of your life when things get tough, you remind yourself, “You know what? I've been through this or Ive been through that, and I made it. I've been through hell and back. I can conquer any challenge”.  The ultimate gift is the confidence that you will pull from those moments.

Thanks for watching, guys. Make sure to leave a comment below. Like this video, if you enjoyed it, and I'll see you guys in the next video. Take care.