As we commence our return to work from the New Year celebrations, we recognise the opportunity to reflect on the year that has been and what we did or did not achieve. How can we create even greater opportunities for 2017 and consider our personal and career goals for the next 12 months.

Many of us make New Years resolutions to get fit and just like we can get physically fit by lifting weights; we can also get mentally fit by developing a positive mindset, gaining confidence and managing challenges and opportunities that come our way.

Being mentally fitter and mentally tougher will give you a springboard to perform at a higher level and possess a greater sense of wellbeing to manage stress and change more effectively. Both individuals and teams will be faced with constant change, competing priorities, ambiguity, and uncertainty. There is therefore significant benefit to embrace opportunities rather than consider them as threats.

At Bakjac Consulting, we work with individuals and organisations to develop mental fitness, resilience and mental toughness using the 4C’s framework from the MTQ48 psychometric measure developed by Clough and Strycharczyk. The 4C's are Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence.

Bakjac Consulting is a Mental Toughness Partner and MT Partners recently posted this insightful blog.

Becoming mentally tougher and adopting a positive mindset enables you to achieve the following:

Feel more in Control

With a high sense of self-control you know who you are, what you stand for and why. You will believe strongly that you are in control of your own destiny and that your actions will determine your success. This control extends to your moods and emotions and although you are positive and motivated you are less likely to become influenced or distracted by the emotions or opinions of others. This matters most when there are times of adversity or setbacks and when other people’s negativity can affect the mood of you and your colleagues. Staying calm and in control has an incredibly positive impact on you and those around you.

Being focused and less distracted from achieving your goals

Being mentally tough provides you with a strong level of commitment and as such you will set your goals in place and will be focused on achieving these no matter what competing priorities or extreme pressure threaten to intervene. This ability to complete your daily tasks and goals as a matter of routine is critical to your success.

Becoming more in control and making more things happen through completing your daily tasks and routines also helps you to become more resilient by bouncing back quicker and stronger from setbacks and failures.

Embracing new challenges and training yourself to lessen the fear of failure

A key aspect of being mentally tough is in the way you manage your fear of failure. If you can flip your thinking so that you aren’t embarrassed or stressed or distracted by failure you will begin to see adversity as an opportunity and challenge, rather than as a setback or hurdle. As a result you can open up a whole new world for yourself.

With a positive outlook on failure, the big hairy audacious goals won’t be as daunting and you will begin to take risks and place yourself in challenging situations to test and grow yourself.

Building your confidence using a positive mindset and self-talk

Being realistically confident of your own ability to meet the demands of any given situation increases your likelihood of success. This in turn builds your confidence in your own abilities and also your ability to influence others because you are sure that what you are doing is right. Often setting realistic expectations and goals is important in building your confidence. Break the big goals down into little goals. Achieving New Year's resolutions and your goals, starts with setting and achieving little goals day after day. The achievement of smaller goals adds up quickly and mean that in no time you will have mastered the big goals. These achievements adds further to your confidence wellbeing and mental fitness.

Being mentally tough is a state of mind.

It is about being tighter and more disciplined about the way you approach your life and work.

You can measure your mental toughness by taking the simple but effective psychometric measure MTQ48 and then using the reports and results you can build and develop your mental toughness.

To learn more on getting yourself and your team mentally fit for 2017 contact Michelle Bakjac at Bakjac Consulting. You can read the full blog at Mental Toughness Partners.

Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, behaviour and wellbeing. You can find her at www.bakjacconsulting.com or michelle@bakjacconsulting.com