The Ultimate Guide to Mental Toughness by Daniel Teitelbaum

The book "The Ultimate Guide To Mental Toughness" by Daniel Teitelbaum was not what I expected. Being a former military sniper, I think of mental toughness as the grit and determination to succeed at your mission, no matter what. I think of mental toughness more as discipline and focus to get things done. However, if you read the subtitle, you get a better indication of what this book is about. It states, "How to raise your motivation, focus, and confidence like pushing a button." This is a book on increasing your motivation to achieve goals by using triggers.

If you have read books by Tony Robbins such as "Awaken the Giant Within," or have listened to any of the multiple audio programs Tony Robbins has put out, you may know about triggers already. Tony uses them, and they are a common part of NLP which Tony studied and uses in his teachings. (I personally really like Tony Robbins and have learned much from him, including some on triggering.)

"The Ultimate Guide To Mental Toughness" goes much further into the area of triggers. Teitelbaum's book may be the most complete and user friendly book on triggering techniques out there. He explains why they work in a simple manner, and does not get too bogged down with the why. I felt he gave enough information on why they work, and then spent the rest of the book teaching the triggers and encouraging the reader to actually go through the exercises and develop personal triggers that the reader can use to motivate themselves and keep their energy level high while pursuing and achieving goals. The author uses different ways to emphasize points and motivate the reader to actually perform the exercises and develop personal triggers. It is through actually doing the visualizations and other exercises that you will find out how powerful these techniques can be. The more emotion you put into them, the more realistic and precise your visualizations, and the more intense focus you use, the more these triggers will change your state to positive emotions and "trick" your body into being more energetic and productive.

Many people will not actually use these triggers. In fact, some will say it is a bunch of nonsense. That's okay. Others will find that these triggers help them stay in a positive state, which enables them to do more and thus achieve more. Some of the triggers will work for some people better than others. One good thing about this book is there are many different triggers to chose from. After experimenting with them, a person can choose to use the ones that work the best for their situation and personality.

I still don't know if I'd call this book "mental toughness." That term still means something different to me. However, if you want to learn triggering and visualization techniques to keep your motivation and focus high in order to pursue dreams and goals more effectively, this book is a great resource to learn those skills.

Alain Burrese, J.D. is a mediator/attorney with Bennett Law Office P.C. and an author/speaker through his own company Burrese Enterprises Inc. He teaches people to live with the warrior's edge through his writing and speaking on a variety of topics focusing on the business areas of negotiation and success principles as well as self-defense and safety topics. He is the author of Hard-Won Wisdom From the School of Hard Knocks, several instructional dvds, and numerous articles. You can find out more about Alain Burrese at his websites http://www.burrese.com and http://bennettlawofficepc.com