Writer

Aaron Redpath

A big part of achieving your potential not only in sports but in life is being honest with yourself. You have to be able to look in the mirror and be real enough with yourself to call it how it is. Whether it has to do with your performance, effort, attitude, habits, or mentality, if you’re able to learn to be honest with yourself and hold yourself to standards higher than anyone else can hold you to, you’re destined for greatness in whatever you do. A couple examples of things you can ask yourself when it’s gut check time. 

Are you hurt or are you injured? The two are not the same thing despite what you may think. Someone that is hurt may be in pain but can still play the game if they are tough mentally and physically to push through. Someone that is injured is unable to physically play and should not be participating. Every individual has a different pain tolerance and what might have caused one person to be hurt may have caused someone else to be injured. The only person who really knows and feels how hurt you are is yourself, so you should ask yourself next time faced in this situation, is this something I can play through or am I injured? As a side note: NOBODY SHOULD EVER PLAY THROUGH A CONCUSSION OR POTENTIAL CONCUSSION.   

Would it be easier to give up or keep pushing? It’s easy to say “Today’s not my day, time to pack it in.” It’s tougher to push through a day where nothing seems to be going your way. It’s always easier to be lazier and exert less energy and effort when things aren’t going well but you must get out of that mentality of feeling sorry for yourself. Mental toughness is about pushing through and carrying on throughout all the physical and mental obstacles that come about. Next time you’re down physically or mentally ask yourself “do I give up or get up?” and whichever option is tougher to do will be the one that helps to build mental toughness.  

There are always multiple ways to look at situations and outcomes. You are in control of how you want to react to situations everyday in life, and your responses to these situations are all shaped by mentality. Consistent thoughts and actions are habits and they can either help to build up or break down your mental toughness. It’s never a bad time to give yourself a gut check, and be aware of your mentality.