"A really important thing for just everyday people is the way they talk to themselves.”
"We have a little voice inside our head that’s talking consistently. And this voice is quite disruptive and sometimes quite negative,” says certified mental wellness coach Wong Yu Jin who emphasises that positivity plays a huge role in building mental strength.
Recognising that voice is important so that one could consciously switch it to a more positive tone, he adds.
“What I do is that I like to wake up in the morning with a little bit of energy, a little bit of enthusiasm. Hence, I wake up to music instead of an irritating alarm,” says Yu Jin.
Mental toughness is a psychological term used to denote resilience and strength that one possesses to power through life struggles. From world’s top athletes to high-ranked CEOs, mental toughness is the secret to push past exhaustion and finish the last mile, says Yu Jin.
“Before this I was really unhealthy - both mind and body. I decided that I want to get healthy and change my lifestyle. In the process of changing my lifestyle, I thought, ‘Maybe I could then teach this skill back to the people I used to work with,” says Yu Jin who was an investment banker prior to venturing into health and wellness.
That was when it all started, the idea of helping others that needed help was his drive to become an expert in the mental toughness field.
Resilience is the ability to cope with difficult situations.
“Resilience is the ability to cope with difficult situations. But in sports, it’s much more than that. Not only do they cope but they excel and become even better and learn from that,” says Yu Jin.
The secret ingredient to achieve mental toughness is to have strong emotional and mental defences. Calmness under the fire and the power of positive thinking throughout whatever life throws at an individual - that builds up mental strength.
“Mental toughness is having the ability, the mental skills to be able to cope but it is not just about having the skill to cope during the time of stress, it’s also during the preparation towards that particular stressful situation,” Yu Jin adds.
Individuals in the military and sports field are often associated with having high mental resilience but according to Yu Jin, that skill can be harnessed among everyday individuals. The key to overcoming mental limitations, he adds, is by visualisation.
"I always tell people that knowledge is only the potential to power. Meaning that, you need to be able to apply this knowledge in a right way.”
It’s a learnable skill. Everybody can do it.
"I would say success in mental toughness comes when that person really performs at their best,” Yu Jin elaborates.
Yu Jin believes that mental toughness is not something that one is born with but cultivated over time through the right and consistent mental training.
"One of the areas of a mental toughness is to focus or concentrate on a task without breaking off from there. This skill can be trained, it’s a learnable skill. Everybody can do it,’’ explains Yu Jin.
Yu Jin and his team have trained high-level CEOs, celebrities and corporates on building and instilling mental toughness.
"In mental toughness, we have a profiling system for participants. We then run a generic workshop that will teach them all the main theories, concepts and skills for mental toughness. Right after that, we move on to one-on-one coaching,” says Yu Jin.
"One of the biggest challenges that I’ve faced is coaching high-level CEOs because most of these people have their own theories about psychology and mental state.”
"Mental toughness is important for everyone. All of us will benefit very much with a little bit of mental skills,’’ says Yu Jin.
