LaRae Quy was an undercover and counterintelligence FBI agent for 24 years. She exposed foreign spies and recruited them to work for the U.S. Government. As an FBI agent, she developed the mental toughness to survive in environments of risk, uncertainty, and deception. Faced with stressful and fast-moving situations, she needed to move through barriers if she was to succeed.
Are You Mentally Tough?
Mental toughness is believing you will prevail in your circumstances rather than believing your circumstances will change. It’s managing your emotions, thoughts, and behavior in ways that set you up for success in both business and life. Get your Mental Toughness Score – see where you excel and what areas need attention.
Secrets of a Strong Mind: How to Build Inner Strength to Overcome Life's Obstacles
A former FBI counter-espionage agent offers field-tested methods for readers to develop mental toughness. She provides a curated package of tools and techniques to help them realize they are capable of far more than they believe to be possible.
Mental Toughness for Women Leaders: 52 Tips To Recognize and Utilize Your Greatest Strengths
Grit
If we want to create the next generation of leaders, we need to enable people to have the courage to move, not into “safe places” but into “brave spaces” where they enter uncomfortable conversations. A “brave space” doesn’t protect people from arguments, or the discovery of information that could change their mind. Instead, it allows people a place that’s safe enough to explore differences of opinion.
Why You Need Mental Toughness
Grit Under Pressure
Grit is an intrinsic desire to go beyond what you can easily accomplish with talent or skill.
Grit Under Pressure
- A deep sense of purpose because you believe your work is worth it.
- Purpose boils down to understanding how you can give your talents and skills back to the world.
- Motivation to go beyond what you can easily achieve with talent.
- Success is often where people stop on their way to being who they truly want to be.
- Conditions don’t have to be perfect to start if you pursue something that answers your “why” and is important to you.
- Great lives respond to a higher calling and purpose.
- Purpose is the linchpin of grit.
The Right Mindset
Mental toughness is not something you’re born with, it’s a mindset you can develop.
The Right Mindset
- Attitude is the difference between a mentally tough champion and a whiny wimp.
- Negative emotions make us uncomfortable but without discomfort, there is no change and no growth.
- It’s not a lack of fear that creates a strong mind; it’s how we deal with negative fear-based emotions.
- The greatest mental toughness weapon we have is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- Mental toughness requires positive thinking. Positive people know they will prevail in their circumstances rather than hope their circumstances will change.
When Life Sucks
Mental toughness gives you the ability to be comfortable with discomfort while producing inner confidence.
When Life Sucks
- Stability is a shut-off valve for the brain. You only learn when there’s uncertainty.
- Petri dishes full of new experiences will help you anticipate what it feels like to fail so you can respond and not react when the stakes are higher.
- Left in darkness, fear will grow and sabotage your efforts to move forward.
- The only difference between a rut and a coffin is their dimensions.
- Wisdom is understanding that we’re not sure we have all the right answers.
- Success won’t make you confident; confidence will make you successful.
- Shit Happens. Life is hard. Pain is inevitable. Growth is optional.
LaRae’s Recent Posts
10 Easy Backdoor Ways To Gain The Upper Hand In Conversations
The truth is that FBI agents use several backdoor ways to gain the upper hand in conversations when they need to get the job done—not brute strength and ignorance
How A Mental Toughness Assessment Gives People The Extra Advantage In Life
As a child, I had no friends growing up on a remote Wyoming cattle ranch—I didn’t fit in and felt out of place with other kids my age. As an adult, my first job out of college sucked the soul from me—there were a few hard knocks before I finally landed in a career...
How Wellbeing Can Help People Get Through Hard Times
Wellbeing allows us to seek out the positive qualities of our life’s experiences. It’s more than brief periods of happiness. It’s the broader notion of personal fulfillment.
How Mindfulness Can Help You Become More Efficient and Effective
Meditation can change your brain and the way you think! It can show you how to become a better person, not just a recycled version of your old self.
A Meltdown On The Way? Effective Ways You Can Develop Self-Compassion
Wyoming winters can be hard, even harder when you live on a cattle ranch at an elevation of 7500 ft. When the wind whistled off Laramie Peak, one of our biggest worries was that the wind-driven snow would push the cattle into ravines where they would be covered up by...
How To Gain Control Over Burnout, The Other Epidemic
Covid has done something truly remarkable—it’s exposed how thinly stretched and worn down many of us are and have been for a while. The pandemic has only made burnout worse.
4 Ways Mental Toughness Can Help People Gain Clarity In Life
Success is understanding how we can plot clarity of goals in both business and life. It can be a difficult and messy process and it takes mental toughness to work through the uncertainty
This Is How Smart Risk-Takers Succeed
One of the first things I learned as a new FBI agent was that risk would always be part of my job. Not every day, and not in every investigation, but there would always be some element of risk if I wanted to move toward success.
Here Are 10 Tips To Help You Interpret Body Language
The ability to accurately interpret body language is a tricky business. A shrug could mean a person doesn’t know what’s going on, or it could mean they don’t care. When someone crosses their arms, it could mean that they are shutting you out of the conversation or...
4 Effective Ways Courageous People Can Succeed In Tough Times
Life has always been difficult and the sooner we come to terms with the simple fact that we are not too precious to fail, the better equipped we will be to land on our feet when confronted with the unknown.
Are YOU Mentally Tough?
See how YOU Score
Mental toughness is believing you will prevail in your circumstances rather than believing your circumstances will change. Find your Mental Toughness score - see where you excel and what areas need attention.