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First, some context…What are Gallup’s categories of talent?For people who don’t understand, Gallup—a company that studies and measures excellence—identified 34 themes of talent that they feel best describe human uniqueness.They originally identified many more nuanced talents, but combined common talents into “themes” so that people could remember theirs more easily (i.e. remember 5 talent themes, rather than 15 or more individual talents). You can only apply what you can remember.Those talents were then grouped into different categories, which Gallup calls “talent domains.” The old domains were named:ExecutingInfluencingRelationship BuildingStrategic ThinkingThey were later renamed to[1] :ImpactingRelatingStrivingThinkingFor a much more in-depth explanation of all that, see my answer to: How could talents be categorized?Now, back to your question..What are some good books/resources to better develop team members who are weak in Executing categories?Wanting people who are weak in Executing categories to get better at that is pretty much the exact opposite point of a strengths-based approach.Those people literally have brains that are wired so that they are good at other things, and you want them to become better at something they’re not wired for?That’s quite counter productive. The reason why is best illustrated by these examples..Skills and knowledge can be learned; talents are innateThis is a story from Marcus Buckingham, who helped create StrengthsFinder:It's such a good story--one of my favorite stories about talent, so I also transcribed it, incase the video goes away. [1a].You grow most in your areas of strengthHere’s a story from the book, First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham, former employee of Gallup:Jean P's story illustrates both the irrelevance of [using "averages" as a business benchmark] and the growth potential of talent [and strengths].For data entry roles, the national performance average is 380,000 keypunches per month, or 19,000 per day. Many companies use an average performance measure like this to determine how many data entry employees they need to hire. Upon hiring these data entry folk, a good manager should probably be able to raise his employees' performance higher than this national average. How much higher? Using this average as your measure, what should a good manager's goal be—25 percent higher? 35 percent higher? 50 percent higher? Fifty percent higher would put you over 500,000 keypunches per month. In fact, the top performing data entry employees made a mockery of the national average. They outperform it almost tenfold.Jean P. is one such employee. When she was first measured, she averaged 560,000 punches per month, already 50 percent above the national average. She was recognised for her performance, then she and her manager set out some individual goals that could help her improve and track her performance. Three months later she hit a million keypunches. A couple of weeks after that milestone, Jean checked her total at the end of the day and saw that she had managed 112,000 keypunches in one day. She approached her manager and said, "You know what If I average over 110,000 for the whole month, then I'll hit the 2 million mark." They put a plan together, and six months later she soared past 2 million.Jean became a model for the role. Her manager spent time watching her, asking her why she loved he work so much—"I'm real competitive; I love counting"—and why she seemed to make fewer mistakes the more keys she punched—"I have more practice." He designed a talent profile to find more like her and a compensation plan to reward her excellence. Today Jean's personal best is 3,526,000 keypunches in a month, and the average of all the data entry employees working around her is over a million.The lessons from Jean's story are applicable to almost any role. Don't use average to estimate the limits of excellence. You will drastically underestimate what is possible. Focus on your best performers and keep pushing them towards the right-hand edge of the bell curve. It is counterintuitive, but top performers, like Jean P., have the most potential for growth. ​You have huge potential to grow in your areas of strength, and little potential to grow in areas that go against the grain of who you are and your natural mental (neurological) wiring.That doesn’t mean you can’t become better at things you’re not good at, but what it does mean is that you should go “with the grain” of your natural talents and strengths, so to speak, when doing so. (More on that below.).You only become great at what you get energy from doingFor example, here’s a story from the excellent book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham (page 77 to 80):[...] There will undoubtedly be some activities at which you are proficient but which don't energize you in the slightest. Fate blessed you with the ability but forgot to charge this ability with positive emotions. So you do it, and you do it well, and because you do it well, people keep asking you to do it. In fact they rely on you to do it. But from your perspective, if you never had to do it again, your life would be none the worse.In fact it might be a whole lot better.[Matt is one example of this.] Fate blessed him with an obvious physical ability and then, bizarrely made him hate it.When Matt was around six years old, a lifeguard who had been watching him swim at the beach approached his mother and told her that he had a near-perfect freestyle stroke. He thought Matt was such an outstanding natural swimmer that he strongly encouraged her to put him on a swim team. Always looking for a way to release some of his boy energy, Matt's mom found a team and arranged for a tryout.Matt had a gut reaction to seeing the pool and all the other swimmers filed in lanes, thrashing through what seemed like endless laps. When the coach asked him to do a little freestyle in order to evaluate his form, Matt jumped in the pool and proceeded to pretend he couldn't swim.[...] Matt's mother marched over to the side of the pool and had words with him. She told him to quit fooling around and to swim the way he normally swam. Feeling his back against the pool wall, Matt complied and transformed his style from the faked near-drowning crawl to the precision human fish flow that was innate to him. The coach invited Matt onto the team.[...] Matt began to amass a collection of medals and won in events ranging from sprints to long distances to relays. [Despite] Matt's natural talent, he still had to train hard, and it was routine for him to log two-hour workouts and thousands of yards every day in both the morning and afternoon.The problem was that over the years Matt grew to loathe swimming. Even while he was in high school [...] his disdain for swimming became so intense that he would get debilitating migraines before meets. It reached a point where he felt that the last time he could remember feeling any joy in the water was that afternoon the lifeguard had spotted him. What made it all the more confusing was that Matt continued to win events and set school records and receive praise from his friends, family, and coaches. He couldn't understand how something he was so good at made him feel so bad. He also didn't know how he could quit something in which he had so much blatant talent.But there was something else Matt was good at, and it was something that made him feel... well, it made him feel like a rock star. Matt loved playing guitar and writing music. [Time] would flow, and he couldn't wait to drop his newfound [skills] into his admittedly amateur compositions. Yet he didn't care if his songs were simple, he knew that the formula for a great song was nothing more than "three chords and the truth," and this was something he was happy to pursue.[Even] when he struggled through a song, it made him feel a way that swimming never did. When Matt played Music, he felt more like himself.So at the end of his junior year in high school, Matt went to his swim coach and told him he was quitting. [...] Matt made his decision and stuck with it.And sure enough, Matt's paralyzing migraines stopped. Today Matt is a music producer who owns a studio in Southern California.[...] Matt laughs now when he recalls that trying in which he pretended he couldn't swim. It's part melancholy laughter that seems to acknowledge the childhood wisdom of seeing a future he was trying to avoid, and part relieved laughter that he eventually came to see through the false signs that fate was sending.[...] You will have some activities like this: all-ability, no appetite kinds of activities. You can do them because, like Matt, you've got a natural gift for them, or because you're smart, or you're diligent, or responsible, or all of the above, but you don't want to do them. They bore you, drain you, frustrate you, or worse yet, give you migraines.[...] You want to know where you will improve the most as you train and practice. You want to know where you will be at your most creative and generate the best ideas. You want to know which activities will fulfill and sustain you as you march on through life.Your strengths are not just what you’re good at, and your weaknesses are not just what you’re bad at.For a more complete and practical definition of strengths and weaknesses, read about my definition of:strengthstalentsweaknessesA better approachDon't expect people to become good at what they don't have. You can do it, but their gains will be small and not a great use of their time.Instead, take the human potential and quality of life of your staff seriously and help them identify what talents and strengths they do have, and help them draw on those to reach specific outcomes.What makes more sense to ask (given the research available) is:What strengths and talents does X team member have?What weaknesses does X team member have?How can we support X team member in developing their strengths?How can we support X team member in managing around their weaknesses?Does X team member need to be put in a different role to make best use of their strengths and talents? If that’s not possible, how can the role be changed, or who could they partner with that is good at what X team member is not good at?I’ll go through how you can do each of those. Some of them can be grouped since they have similar answers..1. What strengths and talents does X team member have?2. What weaknesses does X team member have?To answer those questions, explore:Go Put Your Strengths To Work (book) - best resourceHow can I find my hidden talents?StandOut (strengths assessment)3. How can we support X team member in developing their strengths?4. How can we support X team member in managing around their weaknesses?5. Does X team member need to be put in a different role to make best use of their strengths and talents? If that’s not possible, how can the role be changed, or who could they partner with that is good at what X team member is not good at?Best resources I know for doing all of that are:Go Put Your Strengths To Work (book) - if you only get one resource from this listthis is the one to getThe end section of The One Thing You Need To Know (book) about personal effectivenessTaking StandOut (strengths assessment)Taking Clifton StrengthsFinder (talent-assessment) and getting the full list of all 34 themes[2]If you’re a team leader: using the StandOut leadership platform, or at the very least, reading about best practices when it comes to team leaders. E.g.Marcus Buckingham on the role of leaders and what great leaders do: a practical guide‘The Importance of Hope’ with Gallup’s Shane Lopez – a summary of hope research in foreign aid, schools, workplaces, and leadersReading and giving them a copy of the job-crafting handbookIf a staff member must develop in areas they’re not good at, draw on their strengths, talents, and interests to do that. You can only do that if the objectives of their role are set as outcomes that can be reached using many different approaches (including those that draw on their strengths).If your outcomes have set procedures that greatly restrict how people can accomplish them, you’re attaching a ball and chain to your organisational effectiveness and using outdated business practices.If they’re in a role where they absolutely must do things a certain way and they genuinely have little talent or strengths for the role, they may be in the wrong role.If that’s the case, either put them in a new role (obviously consult with them about it first) or compassionately fire them. Before doing any of that, read the book, First, Break All The Rules (book) so you know what you’re doing as a manager or a team leader, since most managers and team leaders don’t have a clue what they’re doing when it comes to managing people effectively. That’s not conjecture; research backs it up. [3]Notes[1] Transcript of the video about talent being innate:The problem with talents, of course, is that they are person specific. I can't give you mine; you can't give me yours.And so [...] what you gotta do when selecting, don't try and use training to plug a talent gap.I worked with a hospital who tried to do this. They studied nurses, and they discovered some nurses gave less painful injections than others. And they talked to the nurses and they found out that these nurses had empathy. [...] The ones who gave painless injections somehow were able to share people's pain. And they thought, "you know what (because they didn't really understand about talent), I wonder what the trick is--the skill--that these nurses are using to give painless injections, so when the patent rates the pain, they rate it lower than any other nurse."And they went out and they studied the nurses and they thought they might discover that one was using a softer swab, or a better needle, or something.They did actually find, [it's] nothing to do with the swab, nothing to do with the rubbing of the arm, or anything [like that], but every nurse who really gave painless injections did say the same thing to the patient, right before the plunged the needle in.[asking the audience] You know what they said?Anybody had a good injection lately?That's a question I never thought I'd ask. [audience laughs]They all say, "This is going to hurt a little bit. I'll try make it hurt as little as I can."Now, they don't use those exact words, but they absolutely convey the message that this is going to hurt a wee bit, I'm going to try make it hurt as little as I can.If you don't understand about talent, this is what you do: as a trainer, you go "ooh! A script! Let's take that script and let's teach every nurse to say 'this is going to hurt a little bit.'"And you see where I'm going with this; the problem is if you teach that script to a nurse with no empathy, out of that person's mouth, "This is going to hurt a little bit" comes across as a threat. [audience laughs].Further readingCan talents be learned?Can you teach a person "attention to detail" if it doesn't come naturally to them?Is drawing a natural talent?Being a good team leader or manager:What are the must reads on Talent Management?Why should you pursue knowledge in talent management?Talent-based hiring: choosing people with the right traits for the roleStrengthsFinder use in business:What is the best way to use Gallup's StrengthsFinder 2.0 in businesses?How widely used is Gallup's StrengthsFinder test in Silicon Valley management?What are the differences between StandOut and StrengthsFinder?.Footnotes[1] The Language of Strengths[2] Bruce Achterberg's answer to I'm thinking about taking the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test, is there a real benefit of getting the top 5 strengths vs. the 34 strengths?[3] Only One in 10 People Possess the Talent to Manage

I literally lost count how many sales letters and emails, landing pages, and similar, I've written, edited, rewritten, checked, adjusted, and read so far. So, what I've learned from this "impressive" experience? Socrates wasn't much of a writer, but he nailed it with his famous "scio me nihil scire," or in plain English - I know that I know nothing about writing sales letters. Yet, there are some things I'm willing to share and discuss. Rest assured that they've proven themselves to be efficient and reliable. So, let's begin, shall we?From RUSSIA with love!I call it my RUSSIA writing rule:ReadableUnderstandableShortSimpleInnovativeActiveI guess there's no need to explain in detail what each of these points means for your sales letter. Right? Here it is in a few words. First of all, you need a sales letter, which is both understandable to read and understand. You can Google the term "readability" to see for yourself how important it is. In addition, a killer sales letter is short and simple. Basically, we're talking about the same things, but you'll be surprised how many rocket-science-sales-letters are out there. Those letters aren't selling a thing, I'm positive about it. When it comes to the last two letters on my list, you need to be original (innovative) and spark some positive action (sales).Try walking in customer's/user's shoes, first!Here's my oldie goldie favorite. I never write "blindly," meaning I like to try it myself, literally. This is how my wife was trying out some Korean face mask sheets when I was writing sales letters for them. I also like to install apps or software solutions in order to try them first-hand. Future and potential customers and users appreciate honesty and realism, which are coming out from your "previously tested" sales letter. Better to invest a little bit of time in tryouts, than to focus strictly on writing itself. At the end of the long sales day, words AREN'T selling, but the info you provide.Originality is original! Originality is priceless! Originality is uncompromising!Again, you may find this one to be categorized as "needless to say," but there are so many look-alikes in the world of sales letters that it hurts. These letters are "original" in terms of Copyscape, but when it comes to structure and ideas, they're nothing more than rewritten and paraphrased copies. No matter how you put it and which words you use, trust me, you'll have better chances to attract someone's attention, if you're truly original. We've seen and read it all. There are no more surprises in this field. That's why any breath of fresh air is more than welcomed and properly rewarded.A sales letter's main purpose ISN'T to sell!Guess, this one doesn't make any sense at the first glance, but give it an extra thought. A sales letter is merely an invitation to talk, to share, to try, a first step of the long profitable walk. So, treat it as such. Don't oversell your own sales letter! Let it be relaxed and cheerful. Write a sales letter with no extra weight. You should write it as if you have to write at least a dozen more. Those letters written in the end-of-the-world or now-or-never style can be quite repulsive.Shock, but don't provoke! Be crazy, but know your limits!You've heard or read somewhere that "shockers" are the true winners. All you have to do is to shock people, and the next thing you know money starts falling from the sky. This may be true, but only in Hollywood. In the world of sales, if you're playing your "shocking card" wrongly, you're going to be ridiculed and shared all over the Net as a do-not-this example. We all want to attract other people's attention, but there are certain limits we should respect. You aren't writing a gossip column, but rather a professional sales letter.Honesty is the best sales letter writing policy!Again, your job isn't to sell, but only to write. That's why you need to be honest about you're offering. Every single word you write will be checked or even double-checked. People reading your sales letters will have plenty of time to evaluate them and even use them against you. What you read is what you'll probably get. This is how it should be done. This approach may seem like shooting your own leg strategy, but what you really need are customers and clients that really appreciate your products or services, rather than completely mislead people. Think about it.Play with the font, bold, and colors!It's very simple, but it's even more surprisingly efficient. It's too bad I'm a little bit too lazy right now to apply these in this article. Again, based on my experience, it's much better to look at the dancing letters than it is to be bored with an army of letters and words aligned in a perfect formation. Your sales letter shouldn't be a military parade for your words and letters. It should be more like a crazy party where every single word fights to attract attention and deliver a special message.Your tips suck!Yes, but this isn't entirely true. At least one of them should be of some use to your writing plans. This is my final tip with a catch. Put more than one sales letter in a single sales letter. Treat it as a missile carrying a couple of nuclear warheads. You don't expect all of them to succeed, but one will do the job. One point in this article will make you think it was worth reading. One point or a part of your sales letter will make sure your entire letter works. I'm reading, writing, and most importantly trying to improve all the time. The next time I sit down to write a killer sales letter, I may come up with a completely different set of tips. No move - No groove! Don't forget that!

(the following is from jamesclear.com)When you start looking into it, your talent and your intelligence don’t play nearly as big of a role as you might think. The research studies that I have found say that intelligence only accounts for 30% of your achievement — and that’s at the extreme upper end.What makes a bigger impact than talent or intelligence? Mental toughness.Research is starting to reveal that your mental toughness — or “grit” as they call it — plays a more important role than anything else for achieving your goals in health, business, and life. That’s good news because you can’t do much about the genes you were born with, but you can do a lot to develop mental toughness.Why is mental toughness so important? And how can you develop more of it?Mental Toughness and The United States MilitaryEach year, approximately 1,300 cadets join the entering class at the United States Military Academy, West Point. During their first summer on campus, cadets are required to complete a series of brutal tests. This summer initiation program is known internally as “Beast Barracks.”In the words of researchers who have studied West Point cadets, “Beast Barracks is deliberately engineered to test the very limits of cadets’ physical, emotional, and mental capacities.”You might imagine that the cadets who successfully complete Beast Barracks are bigger, stronger, or more intelligent than their peers. But Angela Duckworth, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, found something different when she began tracking the cadets.Duckworth studies achievement, and more specifically, how your mental toughness, perseverance, and passion impact your ability to achieve goals. At West Point, she tracked a total of 2,441 cadets spread across two entering classes. She recorded their high school rank, SAT scores, Leadership Potential Score (which reflects participation in extracurricular activities), Physical Aptitude Exam (a standardized physical exercise evaluation), and Grit Scale (which measures perseverance and passion for long–term goals).Here’s what she found out…It wasn’t strength or smarts or leadership potential that accurately predicted whether or not a cadet would finish Beast Barracks. Instead, it was grit — the perseverance and passion to achieve long–term goals — that made the difference.In fact, cadets who were one standard deviation higher on the Grit Scale were 60% more likely to finish Beast Barracks than their peers. It was mental toughness that predicted whether or not a cadet would be successful, not their talent, intelligence, or genetics.When Is Mental Toughness Useful?Duckworth’s research has revealed the importance of mental toughness in a variety of fields.In addition to the West Point study, she discovered that…Ivy League undergraduate students who had more grit also had higher GPAs than their peers — even though they had lower SAT scores and weren’t as “smart.”When comparing two people who are the same age but have different levels of education, grit (and not intelligence) more accurately predicts which one will be better educated.Competitors in the National Spelling Bee outperform their peers not because of IQ, but because of their grit and commitment to more consistent practice.And it’s not just education where mental toughness and grit are useful. Duckworth and her colleagues heard similar stories when they started interviewing top performers in all fields…Our hypothesis that grit is essential to high achievement evolved during interviews with professionals in investment banking, painting, journalism, academia, medicine, and law. Asked what quality distinguishes star performers in their respective fields, these individuals cited grit or a close synonym as often as talent. In fact, many were awed by the achievements of peers who did not at first seem as gifted as others but whose sustained commitment to their ambitions was exceptional. Likewise, many noted with surprise that prodigiously gifted peers did not end up in the upper echelons of their field.—Angela DuckworthYou have probably seen evidence of this in your own experiences. Remember your friend who squandered their talent? How about that person on your team who squeezed the most out of their potential? Have you known someone who was set on accomplishing a goal, no matter how long it took?You can read the whole research study here, but this is the bottom line:In every area of life — from your education to your work to your health — it is your amount of grit, mental toughness, and perseverance that predicts your level of success more than any other factor we can find.In other words, talent is overrated.Before we talk about how to get started, I wanted to let you know I researched and compiled science-backed ways to stick to good habits and stop procrastinating. Want to check out my insights? Download my free PDF guide “Transform Your Habits” here.What Makes Someone Mentally Tough?It’s great to talk about mental toughness, grit, and perseverance … but what do those things actually look like in the real world?In a word, toughness and grit equal consistency.Mentally tough athletes are more consistent than others. They don’t miss workouts. They don’t miss assignments. They always have their teammates back.Mentally tough leaders are more consistent than their peers. They have a clear goal that they work towards each day. They don’t let short–term profits, negative feedback, or hectic schedules prevent them from continuing the march towards their vision. They make a habit of building up the people around them — not just once, but over and over and over again.Mentally tough artists, writers, and employees deliver on a more consistent basis than most. They work on a schedule, not just when they feel motivated. They approach their work like a pro, not an amateur. They do the most important thing first and don’t shirk responsibilities.The good news is that grit and perseverance can become your defining traits, regardless of the talent you were born with. You can become more consistent. You can develop superhuman levels of mental toughness.How?In my experience, these 3 strategies work well in the real world…1. Define what mental toughness means for you.For the West Point army cadets being mentally tough meant finishing an entire summer of Beast Barracks.For you, it might be…going one month without missing a workoutgoing one week without eating processed or packaged fooddelivering your work ahead of schedule for two days in a rowmeditating every morning this weekgrinding out one extra rep on each set at the gym todaycalling one friend to catch up every Saturday this monthspending one hour doing something creative every evening this weekWhatever it is, be clear about what you’re going after. Mental toughness is an abstract quality, but in the real world it’s tied to concrete actions. You can’t magically think your way to becoming mentally tough, you prove it to yourself by doing something in real life.Which brings me to my second point…2. Mental toughness is built through small physical wins.You can’t become committed or consistent with a weak mind. How many workouts have you missed because your mind, not your body, told you you were tired? How many reps have you missed out on because your mind said, “Nine reps is enough. Don’t worry about the tenth.” Probably thousands for most people, including myself. And 99% are due to weakness of the mind, not the body.—Drew ShamrockSo often we think that mental toughness is about how we respond to extreme situations. How did you perform in the championship game? Can you keep your life together while grieving the death of a family member? Did you bounce back after your business went bankrupt?There’s no doubt that extreme situations test our courage, perseverance, and mental toughness … but what about everyday circumstances?Mental toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be worked to grow and develop. If you haven’t pushed yourself in thousands of small ways, of course you’ll wilt when things get really difficult.But it doesn’t have to be that way.Choose to do the tenth rep when it would be easier to just do nine. Choose to create when it would be easier to consume. Choose to ask the extra question when it would be easier to accept. Prove to yourself — in a thousand tiny ways — that you have enough guts to get in the ring and do battle with life.Mental toughness is built through small wins. It’s the individual choices that we make on a daily basis that build our “mental toughness muscle.” We all want mental strength, but you can’t think your way to it. It’s your physical actions that prove your mental fortitude.3. Mental toughness is about your habits, not your motivation.Motivation is fickle. Willpower comes and goes.Mental toughness isn’t about getting an incredible dose of inspiration or courage. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions over and over and over again.Mentally tough people don’t have to be more courageous, more talented, or more intelligent — just more consistent. Mentally tough people develop systems that help them focus on the important stuff regardless of how many obstacles life puts in front of them. It’s their habits that form the foundation of their mental beliefs and ultimately set them apart.Here are the basic steps for building a new habit and links to further information on doing each step.Start by building your identity.Focus on small behaviors, not life–changing transformations.Develop a routine that gets you going regardless of how motivated you feel.Stick to the schedule and forget about the results.When you slip up, get back on track as quickly as possible.Mental toughness comes down to your habits. It’s about doing the things you know you’re supposed to do on a more consistent basis. It’s about your dedication to daily practice and your ability to stick to a schedule.How Have You Developed Mental Toughness?Our mission as a community is clear: we are looking to live a healthy lives and make a difference in the world.To that end, I see it as my responsibility to equip you with the best information, ideas, and strategies for living healthier, becoming happier, and making a bigger impact with your life and work.But no matter what strategies we discuss, no matter what goals we set our sights on, no matter what vision we have for ourselves and the people around us … none of it can become a reality without mental toughness, perseverance, and grit.When things get tough for most people, they find something easier to work on. When things get difficult for mentally tough people, they find a way to stay on schedule.There will always be extreme moments that require incredible bouts of courage, resiliency, and grit … but for 95% of the circumstances in life, toughness simply comes down to being more consistent than most people.(the following is from lifehack.org)Time after time you see a promising athlete come out of college and go into the pros only to bomb out. He or she had the best athletic ability, yet could not cut it at the professional level. Others might not have great athletic ability, get picked late in the draft and go onto become super stars. Tom Brady comes to mind as someone who wasn’t particularly outstanding in college who has gone on to be a probable first time inductee into the NFL Hall of Fame.Personally I have seen the same. I spent many years in the US Army Special Forces. We would have tryouts who while in the best physical shape just could not make the grade to be a Green Beret. Others, who would seem to be nondescript, would pass the Special Forces Qualification course with flying colors and go onto to be an outstanding soldier.You are probably asking yourself by now what is the difference? What do you need to perform at the highest levels, which is even more important than physical ability?Mental ToughnessMental toughness is what separates the superstar from the merely good. It separates the musicians that play small party gigs from the rock stars. Someone without mental toughness can have all the natural talents or ability and not make it as far as someone with mental toughness with average ability.The key to mental toughness is applying consistently the traits of self motivation, positive attitude, emotional self control, calmness under fire, and being energetic and ready for action. Consistency is important. Through applying these traits day in and day out, you will be able to reach new heights in whatever endeavors you seek whether it be a sport, playing a musical instrument, coding a computer application or writing a novel.Let’s look at each of the traits of mental toughness:AdvertisingSelf MotivationWhile some sports are team sports and other pursuits are done in conjunction with others life is pretty much played alone. Your motivation must come from within. The intensity of your motivation is determined by how badly you want to perform well.Motivation can be strengthened many ways. Think back to a failure. That feeling can provide the motivation to keep going, keep practicing. A time of victory can also provide the motivation to reclaim that winning feeling. Use time as a motivator. While others relax you can be gaining on them increasing your skills.Positive, Realistic AttitudeYou are not going to be able to do everything. In Special Forces we always looked for what someone was good at and focused on that. By focusing on strengths, you gain confidence and inspiration from them. You can create your own positive attitude. For example, smaller pro basketball players do not try to go head to head with others over seven feet tall, they focus on their speed and ball handling skills. Focus on what your natural strengths are.Emotional Self ControlPeople who are not in control of their emotions get upset when the something doesn’t go as expected. They alienate spouses, co-workers, teammates by petty, childish behavior. Mentally tough people have tough skins and don’t let outside circumstances affect them. There will be many times whether in a game or in life that things happen outside your control. A mentally tough person keeps their emotions in check and keeps on with the game plan they had in mind from the beginning.AdvertisingCalm Under FireAnything worth going for is going to be high pressure one time or another. Mentally tough people are at their best under pressure. Calmness under fire isn’t something you just switch on. The key here is to seek out pressure situations working up from low pressure to medium pressure to high pressure situations. Perform in front of larger and larger groups. Seek out better and better opponents, games top participate in. What seemed like high pressure before will become the new normal for you.Energetic and Ready For ActionMentally tough people get themselves fire up and ready to go for the battle, performance, game or whatever it may be. It might be the middle of the night, you might have played two other performances the same day or you might be under the weather. The pride you get from doing your best in less than optimal circumstances makes it that much easier to succeed in all circumstances. The third performance of the day might not be your best ever, but it should be the best you can possibly give. The next time when conditions are better you will play better for times you pushed yourself to give it all.ConclusionThe great thing about mental toughness is that you are not born with it. You don’t have to learn it at a young age. Mental toughness comes simply from the decision to consistently apply the traits I have talked about. You can start today and reach levels of your game, relationships, and success that you never thought possible. Outstanding athletic prowess, superior intellect, musical talent will take someone so far. Without mental toughness they will not reach their full potential.(the following is from success.com)10 Ways to Build Your Mental StrengthActing tough is about surviving while being strong is about thriving.1. Establish goals.The human brain is naturally predisposed to reach for and achieve goals. And not just one big goal, such as I want to lose 50 pounds. Also set more manageable short-term goals such as I want to work for 30 minutes without checking my phone or I want to reply to all of my emails by noon today.With each goal you achieve, you’ll gain more confidence in your ability to succeed. You’ll also learn to recognize when your goals are unrealistically ambitious and when they’re not challenging enough.2. Set yourself up for success.Becoming mentally strong doesn’t mean you have to subject yourself to temptations every day. Make your life a little easier by modifying the environment.If you want to work out in the morning, leave your shoes next to the bed at night and sleep in your gym clothes. If you want to eat healthier, remove the junk food from your pantry. When you set yourself up for success, you won’t exhaust your mental energy trying to resist the urge to sleep in or to dig into a bag of potato chips.3. Tolerate discomfort for a greater purpose.Discomfort can lead people to look for unhealthy shortcuts. Rather than deal with a problem, they reach for something that provides immediate emotional relief—drinking a glass of wine or binge-watching their favorite show, for example. But those short-term solutions can often create bigger long-term problems.Practice tolerating discomfort by reminding yourself of the bigger picture. Push yourself to work on your budget even though it causes you to feel anxious; run on the treadmill when you feel tired—don’t escape the discomfort. The more you tolerate discomfort, the more confidence you’ll have in your ability to do difficult things.4. Reframe your negative thoughts.Strive to develop a realistic yet optimistic inner monologue. Reframe catastrophic thoughts, such as This will never work with If I work hard, I’ll improve my chances of success.You can’t eliminate all of your negative thoughts. Everyone has rough patches and bad days. But by replacing those overly pessimistic thoughts with more realistic expectations, you can stay on course and equip yourself to manage the bad days.5. Balance your emotions with logic.You make the best decisions when your emotions and logic are in sync. If all your decisions were emotional, you wouldn’t save for retirement because you’d be too busy spending your money on what makes you happy right now. But if all of your decisions were logical, you’d live a boring life devoid of pleasure, leisure and love.Whether you’re buying a house or thinking of a career shift, consider the balance between your emotions and logic. If you’re overly excited or especially anxious, write down a list of the pros and cons of moving forward with the decision. Reviewing that list will boost the logical part of your brain and help balance out your emotions.6. Strive to fulfill your purpose.It’s hard to stay the course unless you know your overall purpose. Why do you want to earn more money or hone your craft?Write out a clear and concise mission statement about what you want to accomplish in life. When you’re struggling to take the next step, remind yourself why it’s important to keep going. Focus on your daily objectives, but make sure those steps you’re taking will get you to a larger goal in the long run.7. Look for explanations, not excuses.When you don’t perform as well as expected, examine the reasons why. Look for an explanation to help you do better next time, but don’t make excuses for your behavior.Take full responsibility for any shortcomings. Don’t blame others or the circumstances for your missteps. Acknowledge and face your mistakes so you can learn from them and avoid repeating them in the future.8. Do one hard thing every day.You won’t improve by accident. Purposely challenge yourself. Of course, what’s challenging to you might not be to someone else, so you need to analyze where your comfortable boundaries are.Then pick something slightly outside those boundaries and take one small step every day. That could mean speaking up for yourself when it’s uncomfortable or enrolling in a class you don’t feel qualified for. Push yourself to become a little better today than you were yesterday.9. Use the 10-minute rule.Mental strength won’t magically make you feel motivated all of the time. But it can help you be productive, even when you don’t feel like it.When you’re tempted to put off something, use the 10-minute rule. When you eye the couch at the time you planned to go for a run, tell yourself to get moving for just 10 minutes. If your mind is still fighting your body after 10 minutes, give yourself permission to quit.Getting started is often the hardest part. Once you take the first step, you’ll realize it’s not nearly as bad as you predicted, and your other skills can help keep you going.The next time you think you can’t do something, prove yourself wrong. Commit to doing one more pushup at the gym or closing one more sale this month.Your mind will want to quit long before your body needs to give up. Prove to yourself that you’re more capable than you give yourself credit for, and over time, your brain will stop underestimating your potential.