I had been through one of the darkest and most scary periods of my life when I became visually impaired. A brain tumor was pressing against my optical nerves, and caused me to lose my peripheral vision. When family and friends tried to motivate me through my tough time, they didn’t realize they were over emphasizing on me losing my eye sight.

However, I, on the other hand, chose to by focusing on what was still within my control and not what was being taken from me. My own voice was the loudest voice in my mind; I told my self repeatedly, how I respond to the situation is more important than what is happening. How I reacted in turn became a beacon for how others reacted around me, chose to be strong!

People around me wondered, “How am I able to do this?” “How do I control the situation that I am in?” “What makes me so strong?” They immediately became inspired and motivated by looking at how I took charge of the situation. Mental Toughness was and still is the answer to these questions.

What do I mean by that? Resilience is the ability to persevere in pressurizing environment for a longer period of time. While I am focusing on my Mental Toughness instead. Mental Toughness is the ability to leverage on difficult situation and circumstances, see it from a perspective of opportunity rather than a deficit. When you are mentally tough, you see yourself prevailing and victorious despite the odds being stack against you. When you are mentally tough, resilient becomes irrelevant.

I believe that when I take full charge of myself and the environment that I am in by having Mental Toughness, everything will become different, easier, and bearable. I am able then to rise to the occasion and impact people around me in significant positive ways.

So the next time you’re faced with a major challenge, don’t tell yourself to #staystrong or #dontquit; tell yourself instead, I’m #crushingit or I’m #smashingit. This mantras signify that you’re in charge.