5 Things Mentally Tough People Do Differently

Listen, not long ago, I was having lunch with a young professional.

We were talking about careers, success, leadership, all the things that you would expect in this kinda mentor-protege type conversation.

And at one point, he asked me this amazing question that made me really stop and think.

He said, "Jeff, when you look at people who become successful and reach their potential, what do you think separates them from ones that never reach their potential and find success?" That's a big question, and probably 1,000 answers to that question, right? There's not one answer to a question like that.

Talent matters.

Certainly, opportunity that comes your way matter, who you surround yourself with, your willingness to learn.

But I told them, "If you're asking me for one of the defining characteristics, I'm putting mental toughness pretty high on that list." 'Cause here's what I've learned.

You can have all the talent in the world and quit when things get hard.

Have you ever done that? Do you maybe know that person? You said, "Man, they got all the talent.

If they would've just stayed with it," right? Listen, you can have a great education and get paralyzed by failure, get paralyzed by imposter syndrome, insecurity.

You can have an incredible opportunity fall right in your lap and allow insecurity to talk you right out of it.

You can have all the potential in the world and never do anything with it because you can't handle rejection, 'cause you can't handle criticism, because of the uncertainty, because the pressure's too great, because it's uncomfortable.

I could go down the list.

And I don't say that as someone who has always been mentally tough, by the way.

I say it as someone who has had to develop mental toughness.

Listen, if you're a listener on the show, you've heard kinda my story, right? I grow up in poverty.

I mean, I became a, a soldier.

I didn't know, I didn't know what that looked like.

I, I took my first outside B2B sales position, and I discovered pretty quickly in that role that I sucked at sales.

That was a good time.

I got my first leadership title.

I wondered whether I was even qualified to lead anybody.

Matter of fact, I had myself convinced I probably wasn't.

And years later, I, I leave a 24-year corporate career to become an entrepreneur when I had never built a company or a brand once in my life.

Wow.