Neuroscience of Adult Learning (3 of 4)

Overcome fear of failure – Your body has natural responses to stressful situations, which can cause fear and anxiety. Controlling this fear by controlling your brain will help you to approach challenges with a clear mind.

The term ‘mental toughness’ was coined by the Navy Seals and refers to their method of controlling fear in the face of adversity. However, you don’t need to be in the military to conquer apprehension and fear – the techniques involved can be used by anyone.

This video outlines the four steps that lead to mental toughness and how they can help you to learn and complete tasks without fear of failure. They also highlight the frontal lobe as a key area for reasoning and shaping your mental state, and the amygdala as the emotional area of the brain that can be controlled through the following processes. These four steps are:

1. Goal setting: Reasoning and planning out even small tasks can help to keep your emotions in check and face each challenge with a clear mind.
2. Mental rehearsal: By visualising certain situations continually, it will be less stressful and come more naturally when you encounter this situation in reality.
3. Self-talk: Positive, ‘can-do’ self-talk can help you override your amygdala by flooding it with positivity over negative thoughts that can lead to fear.
4. Arousal control: When faced with stressful situations, slow breathing, with a particular focus on long exhales, mimic the body in a relaxed state and therefore can help to calm you down and face problems with a clearer mind.

The combination of goal setting, mental rehearsal, self-talk and arousal control can positively influence your response to fear and stress. These steps have directly increased Navy Seals’ pass rates, and they can help you too!