Mental toughness is one of the greatest determiners of your success as a student. It’s very rare that you will have a perfect learning condition. Something always seems to be in the way. It could be a family problem, a recent breakup, a demanding student/athlete schedule, an unhelpful teacher, or a whole host of other problems.
Your job as a student is to find a way to improve every day. If you are constantly moving forward, you will be making the most out of your opportunity in school. However, improvement doesn’t always have to do with content. Sometimes we grow by strengthening our mindset, not our knowledge of a subject. When everything seems to be going wrong and you are dealing with difficult (and even traumatic) situations, here are 5 ways that you can continue growing and improving as a student!
1) Improve your resilience. Practice converting the negatives in your life to positive outcomes. Instead of saying “I can’t do this because…” reframe it to “I can do this even though…” Listen closely to your language and think about how you can choose words that will propel you to better actions. Focus on overcoming and take small actions to keep moving forward.
2) Improve your consistency. When something bad happens, many people throw off their whole rhythm. Negative situations are great times to reevaluate your habits and hang on to the positive ones. Hold on to your healthy habits and routines when problems arise and it will show how consistent you can be in spite of outside factors.
3) Improve your mindfulness. It’s easy to get lost in our thoughts in times of struggle. These moments are the perfect time to practice mindfulness. See how long you can keep yourself in the moment and focus on the things you need to do right now. Use deep breathing, relaxation images, physical movement, or any other strategy that helps to bring you back to the current moment. Don’t beat yourself up when your mind wanders, just do your best to refocus.
4) Improve your recovery. What can you do to make your recovery as smooth as possible? Whether it’s a physical recovery, like recovering from an illness, or an emotional recovery, like recovering from a tragedy, are you being a good patient? Focus on getting better. Write out and accomplish every step that you can to make your recovery faster and easier. The more your mind is on the actions that will help your recovery, the less it will wallow on the problem.
5) Improve your gratitude. It is so difficult to be thankful in times of trouble. When everything is going wrong, how can you focus on anything that might be going right? That mind shift can minimize the damage from any negative event. When you hit a wall and feel like nothing can go right, be intentional in finding things to be grateful for. Write down 3 things you are thankful for. Better yet, give an unexpected compliment to an unexpected person. Write a letter to someone who may not know the positive impact they’ve had on your life. Showing gratitude will help you regain control over the emotions that are spinning from the difficulties that have arisen.
Don’t let yourself stop or settle. Every day is an opportunity to improve. When you feel like you can’t focus on your academics, strengthen your mindset. Mindset will always make the difference.