Stress management and toughness training are some of the most important skills.
“Toughness Training for Life” is written by Dr. Jim Loehr who is a sports psychologist and trainer. He developed a training system for mental toughness. I am surprised that his clients are Fortune 100 executives and elite athletes include tennis players Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, and pro golfers.
What we can get from this book
We can learn how to get mental toughness step by step. It is really helpful for businessmen and managers who are under strong pressure. Also, this book is good to learn for recovery which is a necessary process to grow physically and emotionally.
Toughness training need appropriate stress and recovery cycle
Toughness training needs balanced stress and recovery conditions periodically. So stress should not be too strong or too weak to avoid excessive stress conditions. And the recovery period should not be too long or too short to avoid understress conditions.
My personal rule of 4 elements for recovery.
When I am sick or need a strong recovery, I always try to take those 4 things correctly.
- Meal, nutrition
- Water
- Sleep
- Body temperature
What we need for recovery
I learn that Exercise could be a recovery when I don’t have physical stress. Also, the author recommends being Relaxed on vacation or laughing at a comedy show if we have emotional stress. And also Talking to someone about your stress is a good recovery.
When we need recovery
- I want to eat.
- I want to sleep.
- I want to relax.
- I want to exercise.
etc.
Those are signals when we need recovery. I know we may need alcohol & caffeine to relieve stress. (Yes, I do need them!) But avoid too much alcohol & caffeine for recovery.
How to manage stress
As I wrote, stress management is an important skill and we can improve it. We need to recognize that thought has a great influence on emotions.
Therefore
- We can’t control our emotions but we can control our thoughts.
- We can’t prevent negative thoughts to come, but we can decide not to accept negative thoughts.
Tough thoughts to beat stress
- I do my best
- I don’t give up
- I prepare for competition
How we think in difficult times…
- I don’t blame myself
- I maintain self-control with humor
- The bigger the problem, the more I like it
- I can grow through this
- Back to basic
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you can find something helpful in your life.
Beat your stress, become tough against your stress and take a long enough recovery. Don’t forget to exercise when you need it.
Dr. Jim Loehr wrote other books such as “Mental Toughness Training For Sports“.
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