“Mental Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles”— Alex Karras

It’s a well-known adage: What happens to us plays far less a role in our happiness and success than our responses.

To develop and maintain the kind of football mental toughness that success requires, it’s crucial that you understand your starting point to know how mentally tough you are right now.

There are two steps you need to do, the first and the most challenging is to look into your football mind to assess your current mental toughness.

The other step is to ask to others about your mental toughness. You need to be sure that others are giving their honest opinions, which may not always be pleasant for you to hear.

You can make a meaningful difference in your career and your next performance evaluation by gathering feedback throughout the year.

These are people that you should ask for feedback:
• Current and former teammates
• Current and former coaches
• Sport Psychologist and Mental Game Coaches
• Family members
• Friends who pull no punches, honest and understand about athletic abilities

Here are many ways feedback can help you build mental toughness:

Increases Self-Awareness – If you are able to accept negative feedback without getting angry or defensive, you probably have a great deal of self-awareness.

Fuels Personal Growth – Great athletes spend hours studying films of their performance. They are great because they are good at accepting all kinds of feedback, and then use it to fuel their personal growth. Low-performers tend to take feedback personally or feel they are above taking criticism seriously.

Paves the Way for Success – Athletes who are good at managing both positive and negative feedback tend to be more successful than those who cannot. According to Leadership IQ those who fail, 26% do so because they are unwilling to accept feedback.

Stretches Performance – Athletes who ask for feedback are the most effective leaders. According to Joseph Folkman, Team leaders who are in the top 10% are those who are willing to ask for feedback—both positive and negative.

Eliminates Personalization -The better you are at accepting constructive criticism, the less likely you will view it as an indictment of who you are as a person.

Feedback can be viewed as one more piece of data to analyze, digest, reject, or accept as information to make a better decision. Taking it as a piece of data with which to make future decisions will allow you de-personalize it.

Feedback can be valuable data to improve your football confidence. Being the sort of person who believes there is always a better way to do things will take you to the next level.

Developing football mental toughness is a work in progress.

There is always room for improvement, and at times this will seem more difficult than at other times. Reflecting upon your progress can reinforce your ability to reach your definition of success while living according to your values.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Football