How to become mentally strong 3 secrets from neuroscience

How to become mentally strong 3 secrets from neuroscienceHow to become mentally strong 3 secrets from neuroscienceEver get to the point wzu siche your brain is just pooped? The ol grey matter is waving the white flag. Youre exhausted. You cant go on. Youve got no more mental energyWell, sorry, but thats just notlage true.In fact, you know its not true. When the deadline is in 5 hours, you can work for five hours straight. But when the deadline is next week, suddenly you cant work for 20 minutes before your eyes are glazing over. What gives?Ladders is now on SmartNewsDownload the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.Oddly enough, we can find an answer in cutting edge research coming out of Would you believe me if I said professional sports? Seriously.A sprinter breaks a record. The commentators are saying how that competitor gave it his or her all Really? Did the sprinter use every bit of energy they had? Then why didnt they die? Im serious.Why didnt their heart stop beating because it had no energy? Why didnt their brain stop functioning from lack of calories? Why didnt their thighs muscles snap?But youve never seen an athlete just die from exhaustion, have you? Why not? Something flipped the tired switch before their heart, brain or muscles gave out. Long before.And that thing is your governor. No, were not talking about politics. Were talking Central Governor Theory. Something in your brain that regulates energy use in your body - and your mind.At the end of a grueling event have you ever seen an athlete kick it into high gear? They were wiped, but suddenly the finish line is visible and the afterburners kick in. If they were really out of gas, how could they kick it up a notch in the final moments?Because they werent out of gas. Their governor told them they were tired. But with the end in sight, wily old G stopped holding-gesellschaft them back.From Endure Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elasti c Limits of Human PerformanceBut when I asked Noakes for the single most convincing piece of evidence in favor of his theory, he said, without hesitation, the end spurt. How could the runners at Comrades, after pushing themselves through 56 miles of hell, summon a finishing sprint to beat the 12-hour limit? Conventional physiology suggests that you get progressively more fatigued over the course of a run, as muscle fibers fail and fuel stores are emptied. But then, when the end is in sight, you speed up. Clearly your muscles were capable of going faster in the preceding miles so why didnt they?Your brain doesnt want your gas tank to ever get anywhere close to zero. It doesnt want you to blow ligaments or tear muscles. And it also knows that its quite the energy hog itself, with your neurons burning as many as 20% of your daily calories.So its a miser. The governor errs on the side of being conservative. And your body and your mind feel tired long before youve gotten anywhere near em pty.But can we trick that governor into easing up a bit so we can increase our mental stamina? aya we can. The answer lies at the intersection of sports science and neuroscience. And its not nearly as difficult as you think.Lets get to it 1) Cheer upWant to be mentally tougher? Want the challenges ahead to seem easier? Try this esoteric technique called smiling.From Endure Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance known as the facial feedback hypothesis, an idea that can be traced back to Charles Darwin just as emotions trigger a physical response, that physical response can amplify or perhaps even create the corresponding emotion. Related experiments have extended this finding to clusters of related mental states smiling, for instance, makes you happier, but it also enhances feelings of safety and- intriguingly- cognitive ease, a concept intimately tied to effort.You get exhausted and you grimace. But when you grimace you make yourself tired. The feedback lo op works both ways. So smile. You can trick your governor into thinking things are easy.Across the board, feeling good increases endurance. Optimism increases grit. Looking at cute animals reduces stress. And thats not only true in the lab What do people with the highest levels of mental and physical endurance say? When I interviewed Army Ranger Joe Asher he said this welches the attitude that got him through his incredibly difficult trainingIf I can laugh once a day, every day Im in Ranger School, Ill make it through.Navy SEAL Platoon Commander James Waters told me the same thingYouve got to have fun and be able to laugh laugh at yourself and laugh at what youre doing. My best friend and I laughed our way through BUD/S.If you want to be able to endure, be positive. Smile. Laugh. It helps people keep going during the toughest moments in life, including combat and severe illness.From Resilience The Science of Mastering Lifes Greatest ChallengesSubstantial evidence exists for the effe ctiveness of humor as a coping mechanism. Studies involving combat veterans (Hendin Haas, 1984), cancer patients (Carver, 1993), and surgical patients (Culver et al., 2002) have found that when humor is used to reduce the threatening nature of stressful situations, it is associated with resilience and the capacity to tolerate stress (Martin, 2003).(To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my bestselling book here.)Now if that was all it took, high school cheerleaders would win all the Nobel Prizes in physics and go on to be Navy SEALs. So what else does it take to build mental endurance?2) Train your brainYour brain is a muscle. Its cliche, I know. But even when we want to get mentally stronger we sure dont put that metaphor into action.If you wanted bigger biceps, youd increase the weight at the gym. And if you want more brain stamina, you need to systematically increase how long you make it work.From Endure Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Hu man Performance long years of training help the mind adapt to resist mental fatigue, just as the body adapts to resist physical fatigue.You might say, work gets boring. But thats not you talking thats your governor. Its sneaky, making you feel bored or tired so you never get anywhere close to your capacity - or your potential.Every time youre doing some serious brain work, try and go a little longer without a break.From Endure Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human PerformanceBeing boring is an important characteristic for inducing mental fatigue and, therefore, a brain training effect, he replied. Just do a longer session of one test at a time.Georgetown professor and author of the bestseller Deep Work, Cal Newport, recommends the exact same thing. Doing a little more each day is a simple method for increasing your brains stamina.(To learn the seven-step morning ritual that will make you happy all day, click here.)Dont stop reading now - dont give in to your govern or. Just one more left 3) Perception beats realityIf it was all about how much gas you have in the tank, then your energy levels would always determine your performance. And you know thats not the case.Ever work longer and harder because theres a looming deadline? Ever suddenly feel tired because you look at the clock and realize youve been at it for hours? So its not about how depleted you actually are - its about how exhausted you think you are.Researchers call this perceived exertion. Your brain relies on cues from your body and environment to determine when you should feel exhausted - and when the governor should kick in.Researchers at Canterbury Christ Church University in Britain gave cyclists doses of caffeine before a series of time trials - but they didnt tell them exactly how much. The subjects that believed they had been given a moderate dose rode 1.3 percent faster. If they thought they had taken a high dose they were 3.1 percent faster. And those who thought they got the placebo rode 1.4 percent slower. But guess what?They had all been given the placebo. Their performance differences were completely due to their beliefs, not how much energy they really had. So we need to trick that governor.What makes you feel like youve been working hard? Do you eye the clock and say, Jeez, Ive been at this for hours? Do you look at the work youve completed and say, Whoa. Thats a lot?Reduce how much effort your governor perceives and youll reduce how tired you feel. And whats the best way to do that? Make any mental effort into a game.Work challenges you, frustrates you and takes hours. And you get tired. Video games challenge you, frustrate you and can take hours. And theyre addicting. Its all about perception.When you see things as a game, you dont perceive effort the same way. And so you keep going.Whats one of the things people who live through disaster scenarios have in common? They make survival a game.Happiness expert Shawn Achor said the best way to de al with stress is to see problems as challenges, not threats.Kids do better in school when its treated like a game.And Navy SEALJames Waters said the same thing about getting through his trainingMany people dont recognize that what theyre doing at BUD/S is assessing your ability to handle a difficult circumstance and keep going. Its a game. If you want to be a Navy SEAL, youve got to play that game. Youve got to have fun with it and youve got to keep your eye on the bigger picture.So how do you make things into a game? Challenge yourself. Set a goal. Get feedback. Score yourself. And try to do better. Can I accomplish this faster than I did last time? Can I cut this from 5 pages to 4 and still get my point across?(To learn more about how to increase mental toughness - from Navy SEALs and Olympians, click here.)Okay, weve learned a lot. Lets round it all up and find out why everyones favorite mental stamina booster - caffeine - is proof that these tips can help Sum UpThis is how t o become mentally strongCheer up Smile. Be optimistic. Laugh. They improve endurance and grit. (Side effects may include happiness and enjoying life.)Train your brain Push that mental muscle and it will grow. Work a little longer each time and youll be able to work a lot longer over time.Perceptions beats reality Reduce the signals that make you think things are tiring and they wont be as tiring. Make it a game instead of a chore.Caffeine gives you more energy, right? Wrong. Caffeine doesnt give you more of anything.Adenosine is a chemical in your body that tells your brain youre tired. And caffeine blocks adenosine. The tired glaubenszeugnis never reaches the governor, and so the governor doesnt hit the brakes. Caffeine works via that same principle we talked about above - it reduces perception of effort.And that, dearie, is what keeps coffee-guzzling bloggers blogging.From Endure Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance caffeines ability to shut down rece ptors in the brain that detect the presence of adenosine, a neuromodulator molecule associated with mental fatigue. Warding off mental fatigue, in turn, keeps your sense of effort lower, allowing you to exert yourself harder and longer.So you dont need more energy. You need to act like a giant caffeine molecule and hide cues in your environment that remind you how tired you should be.Throw in a few laughs and smiles. Build your endurance over time by extending your bouts of work a little each time. And, most of all, keep the Central Governor Theory in mind. You can always do more than you think.Remember how The Little Engine That Could kept going? Well, that tiny train didnt read as much science as you do, so youre one step ahead of him. She said, I think I can.You know you can.This article first appeared at Barking Up the Wrong Tree.