Understanding and building your mental strength. Relates to sports world, as well as education realms. Originally a Canadian Families 12 project. A lot of fun to do.

1. C A M D A V I D S O N
J U N E 1 3 , 2 0 1 4
C A N A D I A N F A M I L I E S 1 2
Mental Strength

2. ‘Definition’ of Mental Strength
 Psychologist and Psychology
Instructor Amy Morin defines
mental strength as; the ability to
regulate your emotions, manage
your thoughts, and behave in a
positive manner, despite your
circumstances.
 Developing mental strength is
about finding the courage to live
according to your values and
being bold enough to create your
own definition of success.
 Mental Strength cannot be
taught, though there are
practices you can exercise to
improve your mental strength.

3. Improvement of your Mental Strength
 Evaluate your Core Beliefs
 The first step to improvement of
your mental strength is self
evaluation, what’s important to
you?
 Expend Mental Energy
Wisely
 Avoid wasting your time
worrying about things that are
out of your control.
 Replace Negative Thoughts
with Productive Thoughts
 Constantly believing “I can never
do anything right,” will hold you
back from reaching your full
potential.
 Practice Tolerating
Discomfort
 If you are aware of your emotions
and how you respond to certain
situations, you can know the best
course of action.
 Daily Self Reflection
 Take time to evaluate your
progress daily, consider what you
have learned about your thoughts
and emotions today, and what
you want to accomplish
tomorrow.

4. Signs of Mental Weakness
 Self pity
 Fear of change
 Worrying about things
you can’t control
 Worrying about others
thoughts
 Fear of taking calculated
risks
 Dwelling on the past
 Continuing to make the
same mistake
 Resenting others success
 Giving up after failure
 Fearing alone time
 Feeling the world owes
you something
 Expecting immediate
results

5. Mental Strength in the Home
 Share your feelings
 This will avoid any
uncomfortable situations
that may hurt others.
 Connect with each
other
 Open up to happy
conversation with family
members, whether it be
light hearted or
meaningful.
 Sleep, Diet, Exercise
 Though it may seem like
a cliché, enough sleep,
good diet and sufficient
exercise will make you
feel much better. If you
feel good, you will be
happier overall.

6. Social Media Damage on Mental Strength
 With a generation of young
people growing up online,
the media plays a big factor
in how you feel about
yourself.
 A crucial step to being
mentally strong is not
concerning yourself with
the thoughts of others. This
becomes difficult with
some people due to
Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and more.
People begin to judge their
personal value based on the
number of ‘likes’.
 Cyberbullying can also
have traumatic affect,
leading to suicide in some
young people.
 Repetitively being told you
are not ‘good enough’, or
not ‘normal’, can lead to
believing that it is true, and
that you are worthless.
 It is hard to escape the
online world, and hard to
maintain mental strength if
you are constantly being
broken down.

7. Mr. Steve Millar on Mental Strength in Schools
 Sociology 12 Teacher
at Horton High School
 How do mentally strong
people carry themselves?
 “It’s just an air of confidence. I’d
hate to use the 1950’s version of
they stand up tall, they tie up their
laces, they polish their shoes; it’s
not the military. A student could
look like the stereotype of the
slacker, and still be a very
confident individual in their
element. Everyone just needs to
find what their element is. You just
need to give students a chance,
give them the opportunity to be
themselves. A lot of the time when
they have the chance to be
themselves, you can get them to do
just about anything, whether it be
academic or otherwise.”

8. Mr. Steve Millar on Mental Strength in Schools
 Sociology 12 Teacher
at Horton High School
 Is the school system too soft
on kids’ mentalities?
 “No. At this stage in life you need
to allow for the fact that students
are still forming who they are as a
person. So you can’t trample all
over them. Students in high school,
they need to be given the
opportunity to make certain
decision and choices, but we can’t
allow our society to slide down to
the point where we’re always
falling to the lowest common
denominator. You need to give
students opportunities, that’s what
high school should be. It shouldn’t
be an environment where negative
attitudes are encouraged.”

9. Duncan McKie on Trash Talking
 QMJHL Drafted elite
hockey player
 Do you consider yourself an
avid trash talker?
 “I do. I trash talk a lot.”
 Who do you target when you
trash talk?
 “Usually the weaker players, who
kind of suck. [I] try and get in
their heads, cause once ya get in
their heads they play worse than
they are. Most of the superstars
though; you can’t get in their
head cause they know they’re
better than you.”

10. Duncan McKie on Trash Talking
 QM
 QMJHL Drafted elite
hockey player
 How do you try and affect people?
 “Just try and hurt their feelings, say
something that’s really close to them.
To try and take them off their game.”
 Do you find yourself being
exploited by trash talkers?
 “You won’t get affected [by trash talk] if
you try and zone it out, just keep it out
of your mind.
 Any last remarks?
 “Cam actually is not a very good athlete
and he’s very weak in the gym.”

11. James Young on Mental Strength in Sports
 Certified Strength and
Conditioning Specialist, through
the NSCA (National Strength and
Conditioning Association)
 At Acadia Performance
Training, you said you don’t
just encourage physical
strength but you also
encourage mental strength.
What do you mean by that?
 “There’s several different aspects
that go in to training strength
and conditioning, obviously the
body is important but the mind is
more than half the battle. If you
have a positive attitude, [if]
you’re mentally focused and
ready; you’re going to be a lot
more successful in the gym and
on the field. That’s a big thing for
us here at APT, we want everyone
to succeed.”

12. James Young on Mental Strength in Sports
 Certified Strength and
Conditioning Specialist, through
the NSCA (National Strength and
Conditioning Association)
 How do you encourage mental
strength?
 “Every day the main thing is focus for us. I
think, personally, that focus is huge for
mental strength. If you’re focused on one
task; than you can focus all your energy on
that task, and everything will work better.”
 How does someone with good mental
strength carry themselves? What’s
their attitude?
 “Confidence; that’s the main thing. [If] you
ever see anybody that’s mentally tough or has
great mental strength, they’re just confident.
They carry themselves in a way, they walk
around and they’re just confident in their
abilities and they believe in themselves, and
that’s a big thing. And regardless of a kids’
skill level individually, we want them to be
confident.”

13. James Young on Mental Strength in Sports
 Certified Strength and
Conditioning Specialist, through
the NSCA (National Strength and
Conditioning Association)
 Is the athletic world too soft on kids
mentalities?
 “I think in terms of the general population,
participation is huge. It’s something to be
rewarded in terms of people being active and
healthy, because the population is far too
obese. That being said, I don’t think at
sporting events, like in track and field, I don’t
think the 20th kid should get a medal just like
the 1st place kid. I really believe in rewards
based things when it comes to competitive
sports. That’s why they have house league
hockey, for example, where they take the
competitive nature out of it and allow
everybody to participate and have fun; and
having fun is a huge part of sports. But at a
certain level, it needs to be competitive. If
you look at a professional sport, those guys
are having fun, it’s their job and it’s
competitive, and there’s no room for
participation medals and things like that.”

14. Confidence is Key
 All three interview subjects
stated that confidence was
a sure sign of mental
strength.
 Though Duncan McKie
may have said that
superstars aren’t affected
by trash talk because they
know they’re better than
you, it’s really because their
self confidence doesn’t
allow them to doubt
themselves.

15. Find Your Element
 As Mr. Millar said,
anyone can be confident
in their own element.
 Give yourself the
opportunity to discover
what you like and what
you do not like, and don’t
concern yourself with
others opinion
 Find your element, and
own it!

16. Don’t Let Others Affect You
 As Duncan McKie said, you
won’t get affected by others
trash talk if you zone it out.
 This ties in to what James
Young said about focus.
 “You could be the juiciest,
ripest peach out there; but
there’s still going to be
somebody who doesn’t like
peaches.”

17. Focus Translates to Results
 As James Young said, if
you’re focused on a
singular task, you can exert
all of your energy into that
task. Though he may have
been talking about weight
lifting, it easily translates to
the real world.
 For example, turning off
your phone to study for an
exam will lead to better
marks; just like not
acknowledging others
opinions of you will lead to
a happier life.

18. Achieving Mental Strength
 Focus on yourself; because
those who matter don’t
mind, and those who mind
don’t matter.
 Find what you like and
stick to it.
 Do not let the opinions of
others affect how YOU live
YOUR life.
 Most importantly;
remember to always be
confident in yourself.

19. Personal Mental Strength Throughout Canadian Families
 Throughout the course I
found myself doing a lot of
personal reflection
 We talked about insecurity
and self confidence
 I was teased and ‘chirped’
and I sometimes let it affect
me
 Everything we talked about
in the course drew me back
to my mental strength and
my confidence
 I realized a lot about myself
throughout the course; and
the biggest thing was that I
am too concerned with
others opinions
 This project has helped me
a lot, and I will practice
improving my mental
strength as I take the next
big step in my life.

20. Works Cited
 www.forbes.com
 www.acadiaathletics.ca
 www.gsdfaster.com
 www.skipprichard.com