From the age of seven, I basically started practicing my hand-eye and foot coordination, balance, strength, endurance, discipline, and mental toughness three days a week until I was about 15.
Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.
Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.
The Special Ops community has always been about mental toughness.
We talk about toughness as a quarterback: it's not sometimes the physical part that you see; it's the mental toughness and the 'I'm going to stand in here, take this shot,' and 'I'm going to deliver it to my guy.'
The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you're not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you're satisfied and make you happy, you're not getting stronger. You're staying where you're at. Either you're getting better, or you're getting worse. You're not staying the same.
Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It's something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, 'How did you get to where you're at today? How did you get to where you're running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?'
For me, mental toughness is the ability to stay focussed in the present irrespective of what is happening at the match.
The most interesting thing to me in chess are not the gambits. Or the moves. It's the mental toughness.
I've obviously learned a lot, a lot of mental toughness, learned how to deal with some adversity. Hopefully I'm better for it.
