Jason Selk

Let me be clear in leaving much of modern clinical psychology practice behind: Talking about your problems will lead to more problems, not to solutions. If you want solutions, start thinking and talking about your solutions.

It won’t be easy—greatness isn’t supposed to be easy—but you can do it. Choose to be great, every day!

MENTAL TOUGHNESS: The ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity.

Self-image is essentially how you view yourself—what strengths and weaknesses you believe you possess and what you believe you are capable of achieving.

Remember that you are likely to be nine times more successful if you actually write down your goals, so it’s really important to grab a pen and actually put it to paper instead of just thinking about them.

SET PRODUCT GOALS AND EMPHASIZE PROCESS GOALS: To achieve greatness, you must set end goals and place significant emphasis on what it takes to accomplish them.

Simply put, 30 minutes a day of cardiovascular exercise is quite possibly the single greatest activity that you can do to improve your mental, physical, and emotional health. If 30 minutes of cardio isn’t currently one of your daily activities, I strongly encourage you to consider adding it in as one of your nine process goals.

One of the little-known secrets of successful individuals is that those who are most successful evaluate themselves daily. Daily evaluation is the key to daily success, and daily success is the key to success in life and career.

Take 30 seconds every day to visualize who you want to be and how you want life to turn out, and dramatically increase the likelihood of achieving your win.

An Olympic gold medal wrestling coach once told me that there are two principal types of athletes, those with talent and those with work ethic, and the greatest possess both.

Believe in yourself and your ability to make gradual improvements, and the results will follow.

Being a giant in any field is not supposed to be easy, but the status is available if you want it. You can choose to be permanently successful by maintaining the relentless solution focus.

When we think about problems, our problems grow. When we think about solutions, our solutions grow. Thinking about solutions makes life much more enjoyable and allows us to become much more successful.

In my opinion, the essence of mental toughness is the ability to replace negative thinking with thoughts that are centered on performance cues or that contribute to improved self-confidence.

From a mental standpoint, the most tried-and-true way to increase performance is to improve confidence. Self-talk is one of the most influential agents for honing self-confidence. Extensive research in the sport psychology world confirms that an athlete’s internal dialogue significantly influences performance.

Remember that when you are in a pressure situation, you will feel like rushing the breath. This is when you truly need it the most. If you can’t maintain the full fifteen seconds, that is a sure indication you need to take another one.

The 10-Minute Toughness program is simply about identifying and utilizing a handful of mental tools that are proven to help people perform more consistently.

Taking a zero on one of your most important tasks is the equivalent of a professional athlete losing a game by forfeit. Passing altogether on your priorities completely erodes mental toughness.

‘Busy’ isn’t what gets rewarded long-term in the marketplace. ‘Productive’ is. ... The most successful people don’t get everything done. They get the most important things done.

The reality is that our habits aren’t so much formed as they are in a constant state of formation.

The discouragement monster, as we call it, is so dangerous because it saps your willingness to keep trying. You must remember that scoring often comes in spurts.

Greatness is predicated on consistently doing things others can’t or won’t do. Simply put, success is *not* about being brilliant. It’s about being consistent.

What *does* enhance self-image? Learning to talk to yourself about what you do well and how you want to improve.

When we focus on small, incremental improvements instead of perfection, the human spirit takes over, and all things become much more possible.

Instead of telling yourself you aren’t special enough to get all the things you want in life, start telling yourself ‘I deserve it!’—and then start deserving it by taking action!

The key is to list important, ambitious, but realistic tasks that can reasonably be completed during the day. Small, day-to-day successes are the building blocks of achievement.

In our experience, those who enjoy the most success are the ones who do the best job prioritizing the day’s activities and accomplishing the most important tasks—not the greatest *number* of tasks.