As a Mental Toughness Coach, clients look at me a little funny when I start talking about Self-Compassion. "Isn't that the opposite of Mental Toughness?" some say to me.

No - in fact, for me, Mental Toughness is about developing resilience, mental strength, and psychological / emotional flexibility - not about being hard on yourself. Most of us are too hard on ourselves - attempting to motivate ourselves with self criticism and harsh thoughts. In my experience, that doesn't work very well and can often lock us down, demotivate, and dis-empower us - which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve.

Instead, I have found that Self-Compassion, patience and kindness towards self, is the antidote to lock down, to de-motivation and dis-empowerment. I guarantee that you will develop your Mental Toughness by being Self-Compassionate instead of Self-Critical.

Why not try it (consistently) and see what the difference is? Feel free to get in touch if you want to start a conversation about it. I look forward to hearing from you.

Here's the original article from Mindful.org that inspired my post.