How To Become Tougher?

How do you measure toughness? Toughness meaning ones’ resilience to adversity, handling and increasing pain threshold, ability to combat challenges and work through difficult situations without turning back and running away, realizing that things will get hard and even worse but still manage the issues as delightfully as possible with a long term perspective and a good attitude. That’s being tough to me. Being tough is the ability to manage uncomfortable and stressful situations, comfortably and with ease. I really believe everyone has a toughness base line or starting point and increasing it is dependent solely on how important you think increasing your toughness is, what you do to increase it and what you really believe being tough is. Let’s begin by saying being tough, in my opinion, is not about pushing people around, bullying people and being arrogant. All of those things are a weak excuse for trying to show toughness externally. This article is based on the fact that being tough is an internal, independent, unique and self-loving state that makes us better people.

Let’s begin by acknowledging as you become older and experience new and different things, your ability to control everything around you changes and because of this, you need to become a tougher person and become more resilient to adversity and be able to combat challenges and work through difficult situations without turning your back and running away. Examples of this are endless. You know like when you become older and your childhood friends start to become your competition for that certain jobs or different positions. How do you compete at a higher level when your ability to be tough is not as high as it needs to be because being tough does mean sacrificing certain things now for the bigger picture? Delaying gratification is a way to gain mental toughness because by doing so you are fighting to grow your skills while others are not which may give you that position that many people will want. Being tough is doing the things others won’t for the things we all want. This is why we need to gain toughness.

So we did touch on why we do need to increase our toughness and what toughness is but what about the most important question of all which is what we can do to increase our toughness. Delayed gratification was mentioned above and is a great way to teach yourself the art and rewards sacrificing can give you. That requires mental toughness. How else can someone increase their toughness? What about working out and exercising? It has all the elements which requires sacrifice, doesn’t it? Think about it. Those who choose to leave their homes in snow and rain or even when the sun is out and some of their friends are just hanging out by the patio while they are hitting the gym and sacrificing their time and going through the pains of a workout in an effort to increase their fitness abilities and create the physique that desire. That takes toughness. Have you ever wondered what working out and exercising teaches you? It does teach real, lessons and principles that add so much value and integrity to our lives. It teaches commitment-the only way to reach your fitness goals is to workout and exercise. Reading or watching videos about deadlifts or abdominal exercises will not give you the core body you need to outlast your competition. It teaches you how to look beyond your current situation and work hard to acquire your goals-with each rep and set you give, with all the weight you push or kilometers you run, you are working to achieve something major. You can then take those skills and experiences and apply them to other areas of life that require hard work. If you can achieve your fitness goals in the gym, why can’t you achieve other goals in other areas of life? You can. It teaches us how to use painful situations and turn them into motivating endeavors that add character in us all. Repeatedly doing those last few painful reps and sets is the only way to build muscle mass and get the shape we want in our bodies. That pain first starts off as something we can’t handle but then turns into something we wait for. As our strength increases so does our resilience to pain. This is also something that can have major impacts in other facets of our lives and this add toughness to our lives.

Have you ever wondered how to gauge people? You know, like when you want to partner with someone or get a real indication of someone’s work ethic? I suggest one of the best ways to understand someone’s work ethic is to put them through one of your workouts. You know your work ethic, right? You know what you’re capable of. Can whoever you have in mind handle one of your workouts? If so, maybe they can also keep up with you outside of the gym as well. If not, how confident are you that this person will be able to keep up with you, can handle the tough situations as they arise and that they won’t back down in the face of adversity. A day at the gym can tell you so much about a person. How hard and how far are you willing to commit for your fitness goals? How much does your fitness goals mean to you? This approach can be used for any other goal as well. You can measure someone’s capacity to reach their goals by how hard they are trying to reach their fitness goals. The tougher they are in the gym, the tougher outside the gym they may be.

This all goes back to the fact that being tough, in my opinion, is an internal, independent, unique and self-loving state that makes us better people. Internal because being tough is a feeling that you’re doing the right things and you’re getting better at it daily. Being at the gym is an internal battle between you and your will to succeed. Working out takes internal, self-motivation, that allows you to become better and grow which translates into improvements in all facets of life. Independent because being tough requires you to be disciplined and sacrifice for the bigger and better version of yourself. Going to the gym and working out starts with you and finishes with you. The only way to get ahead at the gym and otherwise is to show your independent will to win. Be the first one there, be the last to leave. That requires a strong independent vision of improvement. Unique because everyone is different and everyone has their story of peaks and valleys, highs and lows victory and defeat and every story is important and a lesson to be learned and taught. We all have our work out routines and strategies to improve. Some follow similar strategies but with our own unique twist. It could be a drop set and twist in the wrist that makes each rep and set unique to you and your body. Finally being tough requires you to be in a confident and self-loving state. Toughness is a feeling of resilience and the fact that you can overcome all obstacles. You gain that amazing feeling after every work out. After every attempt at a new weight you increase your resilience and increase your confidence at the gym. Going to the gym and utilizing and experiencing the benefits puts you in the best, most incredible self-loving state. You know exactly what I’m talking about, right? That joyous and fulfilling feeling after each work out is the best and most natural high there is!

Going to the gym, working out and living a healthy lifestyle can create a path to toughness for you. It is not easy to get into the best shape of your life. It will require the attention, discipline, sacrifice and effort to be the best version of you. The best version of you that will surpass every limiting belief put on you or created in your own head. Working out has the power to get you mentally and physically in the place you want to be in. It will also make you incredibly tough along the way!