Mental toughness, resilience and grit are required for success in life. Self-monitoring is a critical personality trait for developing mental toughness. While this trait can help people “fit in” to the current surroundings more naturally, it can also be an excellent way to fortify your mental toughness.

What Is Mental Toughness?

Mental toughness refers to the capacity to withstand, manage, and triumph over uncertainties, anxieties, and obstacles that impede your progress or hinder your ability to attain your desired goals or performance targets. It’s the ability to remain focused, confident, and determined in the face of adversity or challenging situations, regulating one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in a way that enables them to perform at their best, even under pressure or in difficult circumstances.

Self-monitoring and then acting in a way that may go against your natural instincts is challenging and requires notable mental toughness to achieve.

What is self-monitoring?

Self-monitoring is the ability to be aware of one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and to adjust them in response to the demands of a situation. It involves regularly assessing one’s progress, strengths, and weaknesses, and adjusting to improve performance.

When you are self-monitoring, you are paying close attention to how you are behaving and responding to what is happening around you.

Sometimes, self-monitoring can feel easy and natural. For example, when you are in a quiet, fine dining restaurant, you likely feel the urge to keep your voice calm and low. On the contrary, if you’re in an amusement park with friends, you probably feel the urge to laugh and talk loudly. In each of these very different scenarios, you are gathering environmental information to inform your actions – and then using that information to make personal decisions about how you’re going to speak, act, and behave.

In other situations, self-monitoring can be difficult. If you are having an argument with a friend, you may feel tempted to immediately release your frustrations by yelling at them. However, your self-monitoring skills may remind you that yelling isn’t going to solve the problem – in this case, it is better to take some deep breaths, remain calm, and keep your voice steady.

When you exercise self-monitoring in this way, it is a true sign of mental toughness. Going against your natural instincts can be challenging!

What are some strategies you can use to get better at self-monitoring?

If self-monitoring doesn’t come easy for you, it is possible to improve these skills. Consider employing the following strategies to get started:

Practice using your observational skills.

Spend more time listening and observing during interactions and conversations with others rather than trying to respond. You can learn a lot about your surroundings and the people around you this way. With this valuable information, you can begin self-monitoring your own behaviors and choices to match what is happening around you more closely.

Engage in stepping away from situations so you can process what is happening before reacting.

In many situations, particularly shocking or surprising ones, you may feel an immediate urge to react in a certain way. However, you can engage in some self-monitoring practice by choosing to step away from the situation momentarily. This gives you a few private moments to calm down, assess the situation, and then decide a plan of action. Now you can respond rather than react.

Pay close attention to yourself, especially in different social situations.

Whenever you find yourself in varying social situations, such as out with friends, in a meeting at work, hanging out at the community park, and anywhere else you find yourself on a regular basis, pay close attention to how you act when you’re there.

Taking note of specific patterns in your own behavior can help you improve your own self-monitoring. For example, you may notice that people seem surprised by the volume of your voice when you actually pay close attention – this can help you determine a course of action to modify this behavior in future situations.

How can you develop mental toughness?

Developing mental toughness is a gradual process that requires consistent effort and practice. Here are some strategies that can help someone develop mental toughness:

Set specific, challenging goals: By setting specific, challenging goals you can help develop the focus, determination, and resilience required to achieve those goals. Grit is a “muscle” developed by frequently challenging it.

Cultivate a growth mindset: Embracing a growth mindset can help individuals view challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth and learning, rather than as failures. However, failures do happen.

Learn from failures: Rather than seeing failures as setbacks, individuals can view them as opportunities for growth and learning. By analyzing their mistakes and identifying areas for improvement, they can develop greater self-awareness and resilience over time.

Practice visualization and positive self-talk: Visualizing success and using positive self-talk can help individuals stay motivated and confident, even in the face of adversity.

Stress-management techniques: Learning stress-management techniques, such as deep breathing, meditation, or exercise, can help individuals manage their emotions and stay calm and focused under pressure.

Embrace discomfort: Embracing discomfort and deliberately seeking out challenging situations can help individuals build resilience and develop a greater tolerance for stress and uncertainty.

In conclusion, mental toughness plays a vital role in achieving success in life, and developing this trait requires self-monitoring. Self-monitoring involves adjusting one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors according to the situation’s demands, which can be challenging but helps to build mental toughness. Consistent effort and practice, setting challenging goals, embracing a growth mindset, learning from failures, using positive self-talk, and managing stress are some effective strategies to develop mental toughness. By embracing discomfort and seeking out challenging situations, individuals can build resilience and develop a greater tolerance for stress and uncertainty.

If you’re ready to unlock your full potential and become a high-performing individual with grit, resilience, and mental toughness, then Twin Lights is the right coaching, mentoring, and personal development company for you. Don’t let obstacles hold you back from achieving your goals and reaching your full potential. Contact Twin Lights today and take the first step towards becoming the best version of yourself. Let’s work together to help you overcome challenges and achieve success beyond your wildest dreams!