Mental toughness is no good without resilience
Watching the Olympics recently has made me realise that we have reached a watershed moment in sport, and not before time in my opinion. We have seen top US gymnast Simone Biles withdraw from some of the Olympic gymnastics events to protect her mental health. Recently cricketer Ben Stokes also pulled out of the forthcoming test series, taking an indefinite break from cricket to prioritise his own mental and physical wellbeing.
It’s good to see these sporting role models demonstrate that it is OK to press the pause button. This enables us to focus on challenges, whether mental or physical, recharge, and spring forward with renewed energy and purpose. This ability to recognise the need to pause and reflect in order to move forward and progress demonstrates great resilience and self-awareness.
When do you know it’s right to pause? Photo Priscilla du Preez Unsplash
People often use the terms resilience and mental toughness interchangeably, but I view them as quite different. I’m concerned that too many people perceive mental toughness as “just keeping going regardless”. While mental toughness is also a prerequisite of top athletes, allowing them to push themselves to their limits, challenge themselves to do better, and keep going, mental toughness without resilience to balance it can be detrimental. Mental toughness alone can drive self-destructive behaviours such as ignoring the warning signs that the body isn’t coping (as I recently discovered to my own detriment!). Without resilience, athletes are in danger of injury, burnout, reduced focus and loss of direction - not a good recipe for top performance. This applies to all walks of life, not just sport.
We often see through the media athletes portrayed as mentally tough, with the ability to push on no matter what. This sends a dangerous and damaging message, particularly to younger people, who hold their idols up and say: “To be successful I have to keep going no matter what.” It is refreshing to see some top sporting heroes demonstrating through their actions that sometimes it is just as important to know when to take a break, to avoid mental illness and/or physical injury.
The media coverage seems to be moving away from the narrative of “keep pushing on” towards “it’s OK not to be OK - sometimes a break is what’s needed.” This is a much more realistic message, and acknowledges that as humans we all face challenges at times, and it’s reasonable and beneficial to take time out to address these. It reminds me of a blog I wrote a while ago, considering the difference between optimism and positivity. While positivity means banishing all negative thoughts and carrying on regardless, optimism is much more grounded in reality. Optimists, while hoping for a positive outcome, also see the pitfalls ahead, take stock of what’s needed to minimise the risks, and take action to reduce these risks.
Similarly, resilience provides the self-awareness to recognise the need to stop sometimes, and the strength to say so in an environment where others may expect you to keep going. By working on resilience regularly, considering each component of the Resilience Wheel, we can learn to listen to ourselves and others better and have the confidence to take decisive action before any damage is done. We can also work on our support network, so that we have the right people around us who might also need to step in and say “stop, you are going to hurt yourself if you keep going” if we don’t do this ourselves.
Resilient people pause and make better choices. Photo Brett Jordan Unsplash
It’s great to see both the media and our sporting heroes acknowledging the need to stop sometimes, and talking openly about the challenges to their physical and mental health. Far from admitting any form of weakness, this takes courage and strength. I hope the winds of change continue blowing in the right direction, both on and off the sports arena.