The book I am going to base my next series of blog posts on is called “13 things mentally strong people DON’T do” by Amy Morin. I would like to recommend this book for anyone trying to find clarity and answers, for those who are starting to be aware of the fact that our mind controls everything that goes on in our lives: thoughts, behaviours, emotions.

“Bad habits are live heavy weights that you drag around as you go about your day. They’ll slow you down, tire you out, and frustrate you. Despite your hard work and talent, you’ll struggle to reach your full potential when you’ve got certain thoughts, behaviours and feelings holding you back”.

Before reading this book, I remember being unable to control myself at times. I have always been a very impulsive and impatient person, straightforward and sentimental, letting everything else around me affect me. I only realized in the last year or so, that the only one suffering from this, was me. People around me went on about their day, as if nothing happened, while I would be either feeling sorry for myself or crying. I was the only one who was affected deeply by certain episodes.

By no means, I will ever stop being who I am, or stop believing in what I do. I will never shut up if something affects me or hurts me, and I will always talk to your face directly with zero filter: I need this to be able to function. But in other occasions, I found it to be useful to try and analyze and process what happens around me, and decide if I should let it affect me so much. I started to be able to be strong enough to control my outcome about things happening to me, when I realized that others involved in the situation were not as affected as I was.

“Developing mental strength is about improving your ability to regulate emotions, manage your thoughts, and behave in a positive manner, despite your circumstances”.

“To understand mental strength, you have to learn how your thoughts, behaviours and feelings are all intertwined”. To clarify:

• it’s not about acting tough
• it doesn’t mean you have to ignore your emotions
• it doesn’t mean to need to act like a machine
• It doesn’t mean you need to be self reliant
• it is not about positive thinking
• it is not about chasing happiness
• it is not about mental health
• it is not a trend

When you are mentally strong, you will be better prepared to deal with the challenges of every day life, and you will be able to decide what should affect you and why, or what shouldn’t. As a result, you will be able to handle stress better, you will have an enhanced life satisfaction and improved performance.

In the next posts we will start going through each 13 things that you shouldn’t be doing if you want to achieve mental strength.