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How To Build Mental Toughness During Moments Of Chaos
Find ways to smile when you want to cry.
Very few things in life are guaranteed. However, adversity is one of them.
No matter who you are or where you come from, challenges and setbacks have the potential to change your life for the better or worse. But like the old adage goes, you cannot choose the circumstances that happen to you — only your response to them. Why? That’s the only thing you can control.
Take the Covid-19 pandemic as an example. It’s incredibly easy for me to worry about the rising case count and death toll around the world. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. By pretty much all measurable standards, the situation is worse than ever before.
But how much of this can I control? Not a lot. Worrying about the circumstances won’t improve them. Overthinking about how much worse the pandemic will get won’t do anything to fix it.
That took me a while to realize. But once I did, it became much easier to identify the actions within my control during this difficult time. For example: