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Mental Toughness

Mental Toughness

Mental Toughness

I was recently asked how it is that athletes can drag themselves through unrelenting physical and mental suffering in events such as the mountain stages in the Tour de France. This topic came up when French rider Thomas Voeckler was trying to get the polka dot jersey and then retain it on two back-to-back stages with several challenging climbs during long rides in the Pyrenees.
This reminded me of a paper published in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago (Jones, 2008). In it the author reported on studies of Olympic medalists and successful business people which revealed the following characteristics which may be defined as subsets of mental toughness. He wrote that the interviewees were found to:
  • have the ability to psychologically manage pressure
  • pay meticulous attention to goals
  • have a strong inner drive to stay ahead of the competition
  • be internally rather than externally focused
  • be self-directed
  • concentrate on excellence
  • not be distracted by others
  • shrug off their own failures
  • be masters of compartmentalization in their lives
  • rebound from defeat easily
  • never self-flagellate
  • have a relentless focus on the long term attainment of goals
  • carefully plan short-term goals
  • never stop striving for success
  • reinvent themselves following a success
  • celebrate their wins
  • analyze the reasons for their success
  • be very confident of their abilities
Jones also wrote that mental toughness “is having the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to, generally, cope better than your opponents with the many demands (competition, training, lifestyle) that sport places on a performer and, specifically, be more consistent and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident and in control under pressure.”
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