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.
Secrets of a Strong Mind Online Course
Based on real-life experiences and backed up with psychology and neuroscience, Secrets of a Strong Mind online course is 8 short modules of 5-minute videos.
It will help you to develop the mental resilience to overcome any challenge with confidence.
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
Determination
The only thing you can totally control is your own thoughts. No one can take them away from you, so make the most of them. If someone holds a gun to your head and demands that you run six miles, you feel stressed. If you run six miles to graduate from the FBI Academy and have colleagues cheering you on, you feel happy. You cannot blame events or situations for your emotions. The same six miles were run; what is different is your attitude about them.
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
4 Powerful Ways To Bounce Back After Periods Of Stress
Neuroscience and psychology can help us understand how our brain and body can hijack us when we’re under pressure, face short deadlines, and feel overwhelmed
4 Scientific Reasons Empathy Is The Most Important Leadership Skill
Many leaders are unsure of how empathy works in practice but empathy is more than empty platitudes to make people feel better. It’s connecting with others in an authentic and genuine manner.
What Is The One Surprising Secret Of Retaining Great Employees?
I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s degree in Business and took a job as a management trainee at a fancy department store. It wasn’t long before I was offered a position as a department manager and I eagerly accepted the promotion even though I sensed early on...
How A Simple Choice Can Change Your Life For The Better
People seek to find satisfaction and fulfillment but often come up empty if they’ve not made simple, good choices about the kind of person they want to be. After all, age and wisdom do not travel in pairs; sometimes, age shows up all by itself.
4 Reasons Why A Good Life Is More Important Than Happiness
Life hits us alongside the head, and all of the psycho-babble advice we read on social media goes out the window—but usually, after we have plunked down our hard-earned cash and walked away not only poorer but more confused.
The Compelling Importance Of New Beginnings To Get The Best In Life
If we never moved on from good, we’d still be living with mommy and daddy and working at our first job. So yeah, we need to end some good things to move into what is better. When we fail to move from good, we are destined to repeat the mistakes that keep us from moving on to the best.
Here Are 5 Ridiculous Reasons You Feel Like An Imposter At Work
Most of us put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform because we fear that any mistake will reveal to others that we aren’t good or smart enough for the job and that it’s only a matter of time before we’re found out!
How Leaders Can Speak With Conviction When It Really Matters
As the spokesperson for the FBI in Northern California, I found myself in several situations where the FBI was criticized, and I was expected to justify its actions. As with most sophisticated investigations, there are many steps when building a case and evidence is...
4 Practical And Easy Ways To Find Success In These Troubled Times
I grew up around cowboys and horses in Wyoming; words like “country hick” and “hee-haw” were thrown out to remind me that I wasn’t as sophisticated or bright as my urban counterparts. I didn’t need their insults to point out that I was different because of my...
Why Courage Is Essential If You Want Power Over Your Life
Decades of research in psychology show that ignoring the negative and only focusing on the positive actually makes you more anxious. Your brain is not stupid. It knows that pretending the negative doesn’t exist won’t make it disappear. Shoving down what you don’t want to acknowledge doesn’t work, either.
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.
