If you haven’t read my article Limitless Mental Boundaries, you should read that article before this one as I talk about the newest book I have finished listening to by David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me. The book was really good and there are several principals that I have found to be very useful as a diabetic.
What is a Callus?
In the article Limitless Mental Boundaries I talk about how David’s book helped me to break down mental barriers to where I thought that I could push my body. Another principle that David talk about in his book is mental calluses.
If you are not familiar with the term callus or the plural version calluses, a callus is a thickening of the skin, usually in places where lots of pressure is placed, like your hands, feet, elbows, knees. Thus, a mental callus is a thickening of your mental skin when pressure is applied.
A lot of times we get calluses on our hands when we do manual labor like digging in the ground, hammering, working on automobiles. I have developed calluses from padding a canoe or row boat. Calluses develop anywhere the skin needs to thicken to protect from the constant pressure.
Mental Pressure
When was the last time you had a craving for something sugary or high in carbohydrates that you knew would cause your glucose levels to elevate?
First, did you recognize it? Then did you resist it? If you did, you are building your mental calluses for resisting sweets and carbohydrates. Why is this important? The more that you take the pressure exhorted by your mental subconscious to take the easy route and give in, then resist those thoughts and temptations you are building calluses and the thicker those calluses get, the easier it is to resist those temptations.
Friction, Heat and Good Results
Think about how a callus works, friction creates heat and wears on the skin. In defense the skin produces more skin to provide a barrier between the friction and heat. Your mind works the same way.
When mental friction (challenges, decisions, moments of decisiveness) comes along, we can choose to resist and build the callus, or give in and let it blister for later when it pops and hurts like hell.
We don’t need to let our mental friction cause blisters. Unlike the natural and automatic defense system of the skin, our minds have to be trained to callus themselves. How is this done, by making better and better decisions.
Our hands don’t callus all in one day, and neither will our minds. We need to recognize those times when mental friction is being applied, and make those small choices that turn into bigger choices to control our Type II Diabetes until we have built up a nice mental callus to the choices that make our Type II Diabetes out of control.
Decide today to start building mental calluses.
Start with small things and build those mental calluses into thick harden resolves. Do you have any mental calluses? How did you develop your mental calluses? Share your mental calluses with us in the comments below.
