The following comes from James E. Loehr, Ed.D.Emotion rules sport and life. Passion, joy, love, confidence, hope and even happiness are feelings and emotions. The right emotions empower our physical bodies and free our spirits. The wrong emotions block, trap and blind us. Fear, anger, fatigue, and uncontrolled depression dis empower us -- often to a tragic degree -- by setting up panic, mistakes, accidents, failures, poor health and unhappiness.
#1 EMOTIONAL FLEXIBILITY
Emotional flexibility is the capacity to remain open and non-defensive in the highly stressed competitive situations of living, whether one meets them in business, sport, or personal life.
#2 EMOTIONAL RESPONSIVENESS
When they compete, the emotionally tough are fully alive emotionally to the present; they are not locked up, withdrawn or mentally absent. They are able to be themselves in the most positive and constructive way.
#3 EMOTIONAL STRENGTH
Under pressure, the mentally tough are passionate. They have the ability to summon high levels of positive emotional strength under the most stressful circumstances.
#4 EMOTIONAL RESILIENCY
One learns about an athlete's mental toughness by observing how quickly he bounces back from emotional hits -- such as missing free throws. Watch the truly great competitors when they're losing or playing badly. They can take an emotional hit -- lots of hits -- and be right back in your face, hammering at your weak points, forcing you to make mistakes. The capacity to bounce back emotionally is a critical part of mental toughness.
