***Mental Toughness and Your Habits by Judi Moreo

A habit is a routine that you follow each day, almost without thinking. No one has to tell you to brush your teeth each morning, it is a habit.

How high would you say your mental toughness is? Answer the following:

Do you give up on exercise when it gets tough?
Do you find excuses for everything?
Are you stuck not losing weight regardless of what you do?
If you answered yes to any of these then your mental toughness needs working on. When you allow excuses to stop you, you are only hurting yourself. It is not really your lack of motivation or willpower, it is your lack of mental toughness.

When you have mental toughness, you don’t allow obstacles or excuses to block your way. Instead you battle through regardless of any circumstance.

The easiest way to improve your mental toughness is by developing your habits. Pick one thing that you want to become a habit and work on it. It only takes about three weeks for a habit to become ingrained in your mind. That really isn't that long now, is it?

If you want to lose those last 10 pounds but haven't given up your daily sodas yet. Get tough mentally and stop drinking them so you can lose those last few pounds.

Another example is wanting to run in a 5K, but you haven't yet. Identify what it is that is stopping you and think about how badly you want it. If you want this with all of your heart and soul, you will achieve it. You will find time to fit in your training runs and this will fill you with a sense of accomplishment.

What this boils down to is how determined you are. To succeed all you need is the perseverance to keep on going. This means scheduling and planning out your runs and putting tools into place so that you succeed.

To become a mentally tough person you need to be willing to stay true to yourself. This entails not going off track and be willing to find a way to get things done.