MindSummit

Improving Performance, Wellbeing and Positive Behaviours. Be the best version of you that you can be. Mental Toughness - a new thing? It's in our DNA.

MindSummit assesses our overall mental toughness and indicates where and how we might improve our behavioural and emotional responses. It’s been around since we roamed the Earth meeting sabre toothed tigers and hostile tribes. It helps us to survive and thrive. It’s always been important. Plato called it Fortitude, the Romans called it Stoicism. Today sports coaches have understood its often the difference between winning and losing. Thanks to the work of Professor Peter Clough and others we now know what it is and how we can use it for our benefit. AQR International working with Clough and others has developed the capability to assess your mental toughness through a range of psychometric measures which are independently shown to be reliable and valid.

13/02/2022

ABOUT US - A BRIEF HISTORY

Now used by 1000’s of practitioners in 80+ countries, the concept applies to everyone, everywhere. It applies in sport, work, organisations, education, social mobility, mental health, etc.
It is a fundamentally important aspect of our personality that is difficult to assess. This is enabled through the 8 factor 4 Cs framework and the MTQ measures. It is widely used by coaches, trainers, facilitators and counsellors to help people to understand why they might struggle and how to find a solution.
A core ethos in AQR International is to maintain research to improve understanding about how it can be applied. This includes working to develop tools and techniques which support people in optimising their mental responses to what happens to them.
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13/02/2022

WHAT EDUCATION REALLY MEANS

She acknowledged that this was improving and yet there is so much more we can do.
We are privileged to work with many leaders in the world of education who do recognise this challenge and embrace developing a positive attitude in staff and students in their work.
And of course, this applies to all of us at all times. We all need to keep learning how to be the best version of ourselves that we can be.
We can start with self awareness - to what extent do we have these qualities. Knowledge and Skills are important and so is our attitude. The MTQPlus measure enables us to answer that.
Written by Neil on July 13, 2020 in Latest News.
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13/02/2022

WINNING IS OFTEN DOWN TO AN ATHLETE’S MENTAL TOUGHNESS

It is indeed generally the case that superior performance is often a consequence of a mentally tough approach.
It is interesting to note however, that these Olympics are also notable for the attention being given to athlete’s mental health and the sight of elite athletes withdrawing for competition for one reason or another.

That too can be an indication of Mental Toughness.
A key factor in Mental Toughness is Life Control, describing the extent to which you feel you are in control of your life as opposed to the belief that you are controlled by others and by circumstances. Another factor is Interpersonal Confidence – the extent to which you will engage with others and let them know what you are thinking.

We saw a good example leading up to the London Olympics. A young gymnast - a medal prospect - was being developed and was introduced to a MT development programme. It worked very well. To everyone’s surprise she announced she was giving up gymnastics and withdrew from the GB team. She wanted to be an ordinary teenager.
She had learned how to take back control of her life from others and now had the interpersonal confidence to say so.

As our colleague Professor Peter Clough often says, “ Mental Toughness is about being comfortable in your own skin”. There are many ways of winning. We can all be a winner.
Your Mental Toughness is important. The MindSummit App provides an opportunity to assess your overall Mental Toughness Free of Charge.
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12/02/2022

BEST WISHES TO ALL FOR 2021 AND BEYOND

It's certainly been the year when understanding our mental responses to what is happening has been more important than ever before ... and will remain so for sometime ahead.
2020 has challenged all of us in so many ways.
But there is, as there always is, hope. If we are reflective and careful, we can learn a great deal from all of this.
All of us at AQR International wish all our partners, associates, clients and everyone who have supported us throughout a difficult time to have the best Christmas break that you can manage. You have earned it!
Just as importantly, we hope that all your plan and hopes for 2021 are realised.
See you all next year.
Written on July 13, 2020 in Latest News.
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12/02/2022

Resilience and Mental Toughness – is there a difference and does it matter?

Unfortunately the terms these days are often used interchangeably which might mean that the desired outcome is targeted but not achieved. Moreover, resilience is often used in the Hoover sense of the word – it describes all vacuum cleaners but isn’t all vacuum cleaners.

When we started our work with Mental Toughness we, in a sense, were building on the work of Kobasa. She picked up on work from Health Psychology where Resilience was fairly closely defined as “the ability to recover from an adverse situation” or something like that. What this suggested was that resilient individuals were able to cope with adversity when it arose.

That description has begun to flex and change and there are now many definitions which import ideas from positive psychology. We think that fudges the issue and the concept of psychological resilience is drifting more closely to the concept of mental toughness.

We get people who, when we describe Mental Toughness, will say “that’s what I mean by resilience”. Our response is – “you are no longer describing resilience, you are describing mental toughness”

However it is useful to revert back to the original definitions because they point to something significant. If an adverse situation arises, and the person copes with, they can be described as resilient. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are positive about the experience. They may have simply gritted their teeth and got on with it – because “needs must” for instance.
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12/02/2022

Marie Curie – A Model of Mental Toughness

Born Maria Sklodowska on 7 November 1867 in Warsaw, Poland,, Marie Curie achieved iconic status as a remarkable scientist who developed what we now understand as “radioactivity” . She became the first person to achieve a Nobel Prize in two different disciplines for work that has transformed everyone’s lives for evermore. From very humble origins (her family was poor) and with little financial support and resources, Marie and her husband Pierre isolated and identified Polonium and Radium when most of the scientific community didn’t believe in their existence.

Her driver was working for the common good – she developed the first ambulances with x ray capability in WW1.

What is less well understood and no less impressive is that she achieved all of this as a woman when not only were women not expected to work as scientists and raise a family but would commonly be held back from doing so. When invited to speak on their work at the Royal Institution in London, only Pierre was allowed to speak. When the Nobel Prize committee awarded the first Nobel Prize in 1903 they initially awarded it only to her husband. They relented and she became the first woman to receive a Nobel prize. Quite rightly she is regarded as a pioneering feminist precursor.
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11/02/2022

Mental Toughness – Understanding our Mindset

Of all the aspects of our personality this is the hardest to understand and assess. Yet it impacts a lot on our behaviours and our feelings.

We’ve always known it is important. Plato and the Greeks referred to it as Fortitude, the Romans Stoicism and in recent times people speak about Mindset, Grit and Resilience. Mental Toughness describes and embraces all of these ideas. We now understand it better

Research shows that our Mental Toughness is a significant factor in:

Performance – what we achieve
Wellbeing – our mental health and our contentment
Agility – our response to sudden a and unexpected change
Aspirations – our ability to grow and prosper

Everyone experiences stressors, pressure and setbacks. Most of us can deal with those when they occur. It is normal to feel stressed at times. Sometimes stress is even good for us and we can take advantage of challenges which may add to our stressors. It's what helps us to succeed.
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11/02/2022

Self Awareness

What is it about me that helps me to succeed and hinders me from achieving?
We all ask ourselves this question from time to time. There are times when we seem to get things done – especially important things – we seem to thrive. Sometimes we really struggle – and can’t explain why – we just about survive.

It can be more frustrating when we see others doing, with apparent ease, what we can suddenly find challenging.

It can be as mundane as avoiding hill walking because we don’t like heights when others seem to leap from boulder to boulder without a second thought.

It's not because we don’t know how to walk. The difference lies in the way we approach things in our minds. We can have the same skills, knowledge, experience and education as the next person but we can still respond differently to even the most basic changes in our lives.
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11/02/2022

The Resilient Manager

A successful organization is reliant on the skills and capabilities of its managers.
A manager takes instructions from leadership, interprets these and works with their teams to make things happen and deliver the expected results.

They are the lynchpins of any organisation dealing with issues flowing both down and up to them. It's a stressful position at any time and this stress has increased during the pandemic.

Most organisations have had to adapt in how they operate to thrive, and in many cases just to survive.

It's no surprise that levels of stress, anxiety and even depression have increased in this group in the past year or so.
Whilst firms are keen to promote employee well-being programmes, there are also actions individuals can take to help themselves.

Research has shown that the more mentally tough and resilient tend to perform much better during a time of stress and change. The really good news is that it is possible to assess, understand and increase mental toughness at the individual level and to start to deal better with stress and anxiety.
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10/02/2022

Where are the opportunities?

Opportunities are everywhere and often come at time we don’t expect. I was talking to a friend recently who was telling me about how she’d made a lot of personal and professional progress in the past eighteen months. Many people might think ‘that’s pretty impressive given we’ve been neck deep in a global pandemic and a lot of people are just trying to survive!’.
I’ve known her for a long time. She is a very positive and mentally tough person, so it did not surprise me. She saw the pandemic as a period of opportunity. She’s the sort of person who sees the opportunity in a crisis or period of change. She’s used the numerous lockdowns to get herself fitter, to focus on a business project and to learn new skills. ‘It was a great opportunity given there was less travel, no commuting and more quiet time to focus’.

The mentally tough generally respond well in a crisis. Their tendency to focus on the opportunity rather the problem makes them more positive in how they approach such times. They don’t just cope, they often thrive because of their mental toughness.
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10/02/2022

Making things happen and getting what you want…

I heard a good quote the other day ‘the difference between a dream and a desire is that a desire has a deadline’. It made me realize that dreams are nice but they are just that, dreams. A desire is something you want - and you can put a deadline on it. ‘I want to get x by y date’.
Of course, it won’t just happen by setting a deadline, the important thing it to take actions to make it happen. One step at a time and continue to move towards the goal. It sounds pretty easy but many people fail, you only have to look at the percentage of New Year resolutions that fail very quickly after they’ve been made. I think my record is less than an hour into the New Year!

So, set a deadline and start to do things. That certainly helps. What else can help you as you go after what you desire? A plan helps, but this is just setting out a structure to help. One critical element to getting to your goal is mental toughness and positivity. I hear you say ‘but I’m not sure I am that mentally tough so that’s not going to work for me’.

The good news is that mental toughness is something you can measure and develop. MindSummit allows anyone to assess their overall mental toughness. The app uses the renowned Mental Toughness Questionnaire, a globally recognized and proven psychological assessment tool developed by AQR International. Users can choose the free 15 question version to receive a high-level overview of their mental toughness together with tips and tools to develop their mental toughness. The premium version delivers more depth of analysis and access to further tools and techniques.
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10/02/2022

Living & Dealing With Anxiety

How mental toughness can help you every day of your life.
The first thing you understand is that all of us can be anxious depending on what is happening to us and around us. Anxiety is a natural response to many events.

To experience anxiety can be normal.

It can also be true that what makes you anxious doesn’t appear to have the same effect on others. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t as anxious as you are. It can be that they are able to manage their response to anxiety.

There can be many reasons why this is so. One of the most important reasons is how you are dealing with this in your head. That is your mental approach to what is happening.

This is called Mental Toughness. It is not describing how macho you are. It is a proper psychological concept which describes a continuum.

At one end you have mental toughness which often means you have a sense of self worth and feel in control; you are clear about what you want to do and won’t be diverted from that, you are happy to see the positives – even in setback and you are confident that you have the capabilities to deal with most things.
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09/02/2022

Improve your performance and get it done!

Mental toughness and a strong mindset make all the difference.
Throughout our lives we are faced with situations where we need to make a real effort and get something done whether that is a piece of work or an exam or a promise to a friend.
We can all find that this can be a struggle. That is normal. Responding to challenges or doing something important or valuable can carry its own source of stress and pressure.

There can be factors like fatigue or we can't actually do what we said we would do or we don’t have the resources we need.
One of the most important reasons is how you are dealing with this in your head. That is, it could be your mental approach to what is happening.

This is called Mental Toughness. It is not describing how macho you are. It is a proper psychological concept which describes a continuum with mental toughness at one end and mental sensitivity at the other.
Just because we see someone else “getting on with it” doesn’t mean that they don’t also struggle.
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09/02/2022

How to deal with change, crisis and upheaval

It is also the case that we cannot avoid change and in the 21st Century we are experiencing more change more quickly than ever before.

Some of us can find that disturbing. It affects us adversely and we can experience negative reactions to this. It can seem that others are gliding through life and change doesn’t disturb them. Where it is true that some like change, welcome it and even thrive on it, it is equally true that most are just as concerned about changes as you are but are able to manage it differently.

There can be many explanations. Some forms of change suit people. It was what they were hoping for. That kind of change won’t disturb them. Think of iPads – in less than 2 years it became one of the most popular ways of using technology – and no-one batted an eyelid.

Not all change is like this. Some is unwanted, some is sudden and some is unexpected. Like losing a job or finding your duties have changed or even a pandemic.
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09/02/2022

Career Development

Many of us are lucky enough to work at what we want to do. Others aren’t. They can feel trapped.

Many of us don’t want to do the same thing all of our lives. We ASPIRE to grow ourselves and our capabilities so that we can become the best version of ourselves that we can be.

We tend to prefer to lead fulfilling lives.

The key to both doing what we want to do and to being more successful at it lies within us.

Skills, knowledge, abilities, qualifications are all important but we see enough examples around to see that some well-equipped people struggle whilst others, apparently less able, seem to thrive.

The difference lies in their approach to their lives and to their work. A combination of Resilience and Positivity called Mental Toughness.

By Mental Toughness we mean the extent to which are comfortable “in your own skin” and can take challenges in your stride and have the confidence to deal with them, seizing opportunity as it arises. It is not describing how macho you are.
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08/02/2022

Dealing with COVID uncertainty

It’s an insight into how people adopt different mindset to a period of uncertainty and change. Some people are looking at just how to cope with what they see as the inevitable stress and anxiety, while others are taking with a more positive mindset - in the sense of ‘how do I prepare myself in a positive way for the upcoming challenge’.

Recent research from Huddersfield University has shown that the more mentally tough have been better at dealing with the stress, anxiety and change caused by Covid. This research suggests that, given that mental toughness is developable, creating self-awareness about one’s mental toughness can be useful in mitigating some of the effects of the pandemic, or any crisis.
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08/02/2022

Mental toughness

Everything your wanted to know about mental toughness but were afraid to ask...(just think, if you improved your mental toughness...you wouldn't be afraid to ask!)
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08/02/2022

MINDSUMMIT

We’ve always known that out mental responses to what happens to us and around us is critically important. It determines to a large extent our resilience and our ability be positive when others only see gloom. Based on solid research, MindSummit assesses our overall mental toughness and indicates where and how we might improve our responses.

Enabling us to thrive in a world of chaos, crisis and challenge.
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The Meadows, Church Road, Dodleston
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https://mindsummitapp.com/en/

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