The invincible mind of a samurai: how to cultivate psychological fortitude

I will never forget the parable that a friend told me before a judo class in college:

“In ancient times in feudal Japan, when samurai wandered around the country, one day two samurai met and decided to fight. Both were famous masters of sword fighting. They understood that they would fight to the death and that only a single swing of the sword could separate them from death. They could only hope for the weakness of the enemy.

The samurai took up a fighting position and gazed into each other’s eyes. Everyone was waiting for the enemy to open up first — to show the slightest weakness that would allow them to attack. But the wait was in vain. So they stood with drawn swords all day until the sun went down. None of them started the fight. So they went home. Nobody won, nobody lost. The battle did not take place.

I don’t know how their relationship developed after that. The main thing is that they did not even need to start a rivalry to understand who is stronger. The real battle took place in the minds.

The great samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi said: «If you make the enemy flinch, you have already won.» None of the samurai in the story flinched. Both possessed an unshakable and invulnerable mindset. This is a rare exception. Usually someone is bound to flinch first and die a second later from an opponent’s blow.»

The main thing that the parable teaches us is this: the loser dies because of his own mind.

Life is a battlefield

This kind of battle for psychological superiority occurs constantly in everyone’s life: at work, in transport, in the family. Between the lecturer and the audience, the actor and the audience, during dates and during job interviews.

Battles are played out even in the mind, for example, when we are working out in the gym, one voice in the head says: “I can’t take it anymore!”, And the other one argues: “No, you can!” The primitive struggle for dominance flares up whenever two personalities or two points of view meet.

If the story about the samurai seemed fabulously implausible to you, it is because such a draw rarely happens in life. Usually who is the winner and who is the loser is decided in a split second. Once these roles are defined, it is next to impossible to change the script. The positions of alpha and beta are occupied, their interaction occurs within the prescribed canon.

How to win these mind games? How to show the opponent that you have already won, and not let yourself be taken by surprise? The path to victory consists of three stages: preparation, intention and release.

Step 1: Get Ready

As cliche as it sounds, preparation is very important. You must be trained, possible scenarios rehearsed.

Many admit that their victories are the result of long training. On the other hand, countless losers were confident that they had prepared well. It often happens that we train hard, but do not understand when we become really ready. We keep replaying possible scenarios in our minds, feverishly avoiding the imaginary loss — and so on until the very event for which we were preparing.

This is the difference between the preparation process and the ready state. To be ready means to be able to forget about preparation, because you know that this stage is over. As a result, you should become self-confident.

Exercising to exhaustion is useless if you can’t trust yourself to relax. If you don’t relax, you won’t be able to improvise or deliberately react to a situation. You will find yourself vulnerable both on the physical and psychological levels, become inhibited and inevitably falter.

Preparation is necessary, but this stage alone is not enough. You can be the world’s expert in your field and not become the opinion leader on the subject. Many talented individuals fail to fulfill their potential because they don’t know how to go from preparing to winning.

Stage 2. Form the intention to win

Few play to win. Many people play not to lose. By starting the game with this mindset, you are putting yourself in a losing position right from the start. You leave yourself to chance or to the mercy of the enemy. The outcome of the fight is clear from the very beginning, if before that you have not formed a clear intention to dominate and win. You might as well bow down to your opponent’s sword and beg him to finish the job quickly.

By intention, I don’t just mean verbal affirmation or visualization. They help solidify the intention, but are useless without the emotional power that feeds them. Without her support, they become empty rituals or narcissistic fantasies.

True intention is an emotional state. Moreover, it is a state of certainty. It’s not «I hope this happens» or «I want this to happen», although desire is also an important ingredient. This is a deep unshakable confidence that the plan will come true.

Confidence moves your victory out of desire and into the realm of possibility. If you don’t believe in the possibility of winning, how are you going to achieve it? If you find it difficult to achieve a state of confidence, you have a valuable opportunity to learn what prevents it. It is important to eradicate these obstacles, or at least become aware of their presence. It will be difficult for your intention to develop in a soil weighed down by fears, doubts and apprehensions.

When you form an intention, you will feel it. You will not have any doubts, everything will become clear. You should feel that you should just go ahead and carry out the intention, that the action is a mere formality, repeating your confidence.

If the intention is correctly formulated, the mind will be able to find unexpected paths to victories that previously seemed impossible due to self-doubt. Like preparation, intention is self-sufficient—once set right, you can trust it and forget about it.

The last and most important element on the path to victory is the ability to clear the mind and release inspiration.

Stage 3: Free your mind

Once you’ve completed the preparation and formed the intention, it’s time to let them work on their own. Despite the fact that you are prepared and confident in victory, you still do not know exactly how this will happen. You must be open, aware and instantly respond to everything that happens, live «in the moment.»

If you’ve prepared properly, you don’t need to think about action. If you have formed an intention, you do not need to worry about the motivation to win. You have done your best in these stages, trust yourself and you can forget about them. The samurai of the legend did not die because their minds were free. Both warriors were completely focused on what was happening, and not dwelling on what might happen in the next moment.

Freeing the mind is the most difficult stage on the way to victory. It sounds paradoxical, but you have to let go of even the desire to win. By itself, it does not help to win, only builds up excitement and fear of defeat.

Regardless of the desire, part of your mind should be impartial and calm to assess the situation as if from the outside. When the time comes to act decisively, the desire to win or the fear of losing will cloud your mind and distract you from what is happening.

Many have experienced this sense of release. When it comes, we call it «being in the zone» or «in the flow.» Actions occur as if by themselves, the body moves by itself and you exceed your capabilities. This state seems mystical, as if an unearthly being has overshadowed us with its presence. In fact, this happens because we do not interfere with ourselves. This state is not supernatural. It’s strange that we experience it so rarely.

Once you have properly prepared, formed an unwavering intention, and freed yourself from attachments and prejudices, you will have an invincible mind. You may not defeat the other, as happened in the legend of the samurai, but he will not be able to defeat you either.

What is it for

As I said before, the battles for supremacy are always and everywhere. They may be playful or serious, but we are always involved in the center of events.

Each of the described stages of the same order is all a manifestation of mental fortitude. My definition of mental toughness is pronounced dominance and low stress. Unfortunately, in our time, few pay attention to psychological training, and this is the key to victory.

At work, I practice neuromuscular release training to develop mental toughness. With this method, I deal with the main obstacles to achieving an invincible mind — fear, tension, anxiety. Training is aimed not only at the body, but also at the mind. Once you win the inner battle between yourself and your primal instincts, the rest comes naturally.

Mental toughness is needed in every game we play and every battle we are involved in. It was this quality that helped both samurai survive. While you won’t win every battle in the world, you will emerge victorious from many thanks to your mental fortitude. You will never lose a battle with yourself.