Imagine, Believe, Achieve

Two of BE MORE's athletes are going to stand on the start line and compete in two different events around the world this month, 2015's road cycling world championship is just around the corner and tonight it is the final of the Israeli Master Chef. Toughness, The only word going through my mind right now.

There are lots of books and countless myths about the meaning of toughness. Test yourself, what are the words that come up in your head when you think about the word toughness?

It is a big confussion to connect words like insensitive, cold, hard, ruthless and killer instict to the word toughness. Let's try words like responsive, strong, flexible, resilient under pressure and mindfulness.

When we think about great achievers like Michael Jordan, Fabian Cancellara, Steve Jobs and many others, we can see how the last example of words gives us the better fit to understand toughness.

"Toughness is the ability to consistently perform toward the upper range of your talent and skill regardless of competitive circumstances" (James E. Loehr)

In his book "The new toughness training for sports" James E. Loehr gives us the markers of toughness as:

1. The ability to absorb unexpected emotional turns and remain supple, nondefensive and balanced, able to summon a wide range of positive emotions (fun, joy, fighting, humor) to the competitive battle.

2. The ability to remain emotionally alive, engaged and connected under pressure.

3. The ability to exert and resist great force emotionally under pressure, to sustain a powerful fighting spirit against impossible odds.

4. The ability to take a punch emotionally and bounce back quickly, to recover quickly from disappointments, mistakes and missed opportunities and jump back into battle fully ready to resume the fight.

Everything I wrote in this piece of post up until now was just in order to get to the next sentence -> toughness is learned.

Even if you read the above and don't find yourself between the words, don't stop here!

If you don't have it, it just means you haven't learnt it yet.

Anyone can learn to get tougher at any stage in his or her life.

Here I want to give you the first step to enter the world of toughness: tough thinking.

What determine our level of motivation are thoughts, and what determine our thoughts is simply US and our decision. (more about decision in my last post)

Think about your thoughts as T.V channels and see how you can just move from one to another. As simple as this.

Now that you are the king and queen of the "clicker" or your thoughts, let's practice it:

This is the last 5 km stretch of a long race and you barely keep up with the group:

COME ON - I CAN DO THIS!

HANG IN THERE. KEEP FIGHTING.

You climb up a steep hill and feel you are on the edge: I LOVE IT!

When your back is tight against the wall:

THIS IS REALLY TOUGH - BUT I'M A WHOLE LOT TOUGHER.

Problems just come one after another: BRING 'EM ON - ALL OF THEM.

I'LL NEVER SURRENDER!

When you feel tired, negative and weak:

TODAY WILL BE A GREAT CHALLENGE FOR ME.

IF I CAN DO IT HERE AND NOW, I CAN DO IT ANYWHERE.

NO EXCUSES!

I'M GOING TO BE SUPER-TOUGH TODAY AND MAKE IT.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes."

(Marcel Proust)