David Horne

Mental toughness, grit, or resilience is two-fold. The first part is how we handle, deal, and cope with adversity and setbacks. The second part is how well we perform under pressure.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

In the simplest terms, it’s easier to do nothing than it is to do something. And we as individuals always seek the path of least resistance. Our mind wants us to do the least possible work in order to achieve the greatest possible outcome.

Not knowing the solution is painful and uncomfortable. However, the only way to build mental toughness and improve is to find a way, figure it out, and make adjustments. Athletics is one of the last bastions of having to find a way and figure it out, because unlike the test examples above, an athlete’s test is the game. Unfortunately, many parents

knowing what it’s going to eat. Every day, it finds food. The lion isn’t worried—it just does what it needs to do. Somewhere else, in a zoo, a caged lion sits around every day and waits for a zookeeper. The lion is comfortable. It gets to relax. It’s not worried much, either. Both of these animals are lions. Only one is a king.

There are fill-in-the-blank labels that can be used in nearly every situation to extract information from your counterpart, or defuse an accusation: It seems like _________ is valuable to you. It seems like you don’t like _________. It seems like you value __________. It seems like _________ makes it easier. It seems like you’re reluctant to

From a practical standpoint, the biggest contributor to your errors and emotional volatility is what lies below the surface, such as flaws like:

People have vastly different desires, except for three things: Respect, feeling useful, and control over their time. Those are nearly universal.