How To Develop Thick Skin

Are you curious to know how to develop thick skin?

Would you like to be able to quickly brush off negative comments and thoughts about you?

How would you like to be able to withstand tough times and challenges that might come your way?

Having thick skin is necessary for surviving in these present times.

This is because there are so many things that you have to deal with daily as an individual.

Firstly, there are constant ups and downs you encounter in your line of work, business, or personal life.

Also, You might have to deal with some negative people that take pleasure in saying all sorts of negative things about people.

Since these experiences are part of life there’s nothing much you can do than to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally to face these challenges.

Hence the need for you to develop a thick skin.

This is so that when these challenges come either from people or things around you, you can quickly brush them off and stand firm regardless.

In this blog post, you’ll find out what it means to develop a thick skin and how to do it.

Stay with us to find out all you need to know.

How To Develop Thick Skin

Before we look into the process of how to develop thick skin let’s consider what it means to have thick skin.

What Does It Mean To Be Thick-Skinned?

In this context, developing thick skin has nothing to do with the physical body of an individual.

Rather it has more to do with the mind and personality of an individual.

To be thick-skinned is all about having the mental and emotional agility to withstand the stress and pressure of negatives situations or circumstances.

It also means the ability to prevent yourself from getting upset, depressed, or disturbed, by negative comments or behavior from people around you.

In a nutshell, being thick-skinned is about being mentally and emotionally tough.

Thus helping you to maintain high productivity and performance level in your business, professional, and personal life.

Now you know what it means to be thick-skinned.

While being thick-skinned might be a natural character trait for some people, most people lack this skill.

Most people tend to think of themselves as strong-willed, confident, resilient, and emotionally tough.

However, in the real sense, they are not.

Here are some of the behavior traits of people who are not thick-skinned

Signs Of Thin-Skinned People; Lack Of Mental And Emotional Toughness

People who are thin-skinned tend to have the following traits or characteristics.

excessively sensitive to people’s opinions and criticisms about them
are easily offended
are easily depressed
lose interest in things easily especially when there’s so much stress or pressure
give up on challenging situations
respond more strongly to physical and emotional pain

Now you know some of the traits of thin-skinned people.

Have you noticed one or more things about yourself in these traits of thin-skinned people?

Overall, thin-skinned people let things get to them too much.

As such, they are easily hurt by people’s negative actions and words towards them.

This makes their productivity, efficiency, and overall performance levels easily affected in whatever they do.

Hence, the need for you to know how to develop a thick skin.

Tips On How To Develop Thick Skin

Developing thick-skin is a matter of careful practice and making conscious efforts towards being a mentally tough individual.

Bear in mind however that, this isn’t about becoming an insensitive and self-absorbed individual.

It isn’t about lacking empathy skills and being generally wicked to people around you.

It is about reacting to negative actions and situations such that it doesn’t break you down emotionally and mentally.

Whether you’re trying to develop a thick skin to life’s challenges or criticisms from people, here’s how to develop a thick skin.

This is so you can become a mentally tough individual and achieve success in your business, professional, and personal life.

Stop Taking Things Too Personally

This is one of the first steps to develop a thick skin and toughen up as an individual generally.

Whether it is rejection, criticisms, business failure, or challenges in your line of work, learn not to take things personally.

Sometimes when you experience failure and criticisms you start to question your capabilities.

You also start feeling bad and telling yourself all sorts of negative words.

This can only lead to more hurt and pain.

You’re not the only one in the universe being criticized or going through rough times.

Hence, don’t let things get to you and hurt you deeply (mentally and emotionally).

Rather, learn to accept things for what they are and move on.

If you’ve failed at something and you get criticized for it, don’t let it hurt you.

Pick yourself up, learn your lessons from that experience, and move on.

Thus helping you quickly brush up negative feelings and developing a thick skin.

Have A Positive Mindset

One other important tip that can help you develop a thick skin is having a positive mindset

Having a positive mindset means having a positive mental attitude toward life generally.

More so, it is a mindset that helps you focus only on the positive side of things.

With a positive mindset, you’ll be able to see the challenges and criticisms you encounter as learning experiences.

You’ll also understand that they are all part of the experiences that you must encounter to make you stronger as an individual.

Thus helping you keep an open mind to facing challenges and criticisms either in your business, professional or personal life.

Consequently, helping you develop a thick skin.

Identify Your Vulnerabilities And Triggers

This is another important tip for you on how to develop a thick skin.

As individuals, we all have things that make us tick as individuals.

It’s possible that you were criticized a lot as a child each time you failed at something.

This has got you feeling sensitive to people’s opinions about you as an adult.

More so, you’ve developed a kind of oversensitivity to failing and making mistakes as a person.

Hence, when people make negative comments about these areas in your life, they get under your skin.

Identify what these areas are in your life.

Know yourself, know what gets to you as an individual either in your business, professional, or personal life.

This way when people have negative things to say about your insecurities it won’t hurt you as much.

This is because you’re aware of it and you’re mentally prepared to handle whatever opinions people have of you in that area.

Hence, one of the ways to develop tough skin is to develop self-awareness.

Learn To Take Responsibility

Another thing you can do to develop a thick skin and toughen up in life generally is learning to take responsibility.

By this, we mean taking responsibility for your life and whatever it is that happens to you.

Most times when we encounter challenging situations we are quick to blame other things or people other than ourselves.

This way you can’t develop the mental toughness you need to face other bigger challenges in your life.

Bear in mind that by this we do not mean criticizing yourself or constantly living in self-condemnation.

We just mean learning to recognize your faults in every negative situation, taking responsibility for them, and seeking solutions to whatever problems that may arise.

By doing this you’ll quickly bounce back from negative situations and move forward in life.

Thus toughening you up and helping you develop a thick skin.

Embrace Criticisms And Challenges

This is another important tip on how to develop a thick skin to keep in mind.

Whatever it is that you do, not everyone would like you for who you are.

You can’t please everyone.

It also doesn’t matter how perfect or carefully organized you are, tough times will come.

You will encounter challenges either in your business, professional, or personal life.

Having this in mind always would help you come to terms with the fact that criticisms and challenges as a necessary part of life.

Given this, you’ll be mentally and emotionally prepared to face them head-on.

Thus helping you develop a thick skin to criticisms and challenges.

Understand That You’re In Charge Of Your Emotions

One other thing you must know about developing a thick skin is that you’re in charge of your emotions.

Yes, you!

People’s words and actions cannot hurt you unless you let them.

More so, only you can determine how you react to certain situations in your life.

Hence, stop giving people and situations more power over your emotions than they deserve by allowing things to get to you.

Understand that you’re in charge of your emotions and firmly decide not to allow negative comments and situations to get the best of you.

Thereby, helping you develop a thick skin to negative comments and challenging situations.

Accept The Truth And Discard False Statements

Most times people feel offended by criticisms and insults.

Yes, they might be painful and hurt you emotionally.

However, if you take time out to consider what someone or people said about you, you could easily differentiate between what is true and the false statements.

So when people say things about you don’t be quick to react or feel bad.

Consider, what has been said.

Is there any truth in it?

Is what they are criticizing about you an obvious negative trait?

Or are they simply giving false and malicious statements about you?

If there’s any truth in what they’ve said, be courageous and accept the facts.

If there’s no truth in what they’ve said, discard negative comments as a false perception of your personality which has nothing to do with you.

Consequently, helping you move on from criticisms and developing a thick skin.

Have A Strong Sense Of Self-Belief

Another thing you need to know about developing a thick skin is having a strong sense of self-belief.

Earlier we stated that you’re in charge of your emotions and no one can hurt you emotionally unless you let them.

The same applies here.

No one can make you feel bad about your abilities unless you let them.

What negative comments have people said about you?

Have you been criticized because you failed at something or made a mistake?

You must understand that people are entitled to hold different opinions about you.

Hence, it doesn’t matter what they’ve said.

What matters the most is what you believe.

If they’ve called you a failure and you believe it then you shouldn’t feel hurt because they only affirmed what you believe.

However, if you believe that you are worth more than what they say you are, then you are.

Hence, have a strong sense of self-belief.

This way you’ll be able to quickly brush off and get over negative comments about you.

Consequently, helping you develop a thick skin.

Build Resilience

Resilience is the ability to withstand and quickly recover from tough situations.

The talk on how to develop a thick skin would not be complete without mentioning resilience.

Whether you’re struggling with negative comments from people in your line of work or the challenges of life generally, you need resilience.

Since challenges and criticisms are part of life, you need resilience to bounce back up from whatever negative experiences you might have had.

Moreover, you need resilience to move forward and work on achieving your set goals regardless of what you must have been through.

Hence, to become thick-skinned you need to build resilience.

That’s all the tips we have for you on how to develop a thick skin.

Consider Yourself A Priority; Prioritize Self-Care

This is another important tip on how to develop a thick skin that you need to know of.

This is all about making yourself a priority.

In order words looking out for yourself amidst difficult situations.

Self-care can greatly improve emotional health and help you cope with stress better.

Whether you’re dealing with life’s challenges or negative and hurtful comments from people, look out for yourself.

These situations can put you under serious emotional, mental, and physical stress.

By developing a stress-coping mechanism through your self-care routine you’ll be better able to handle stress when it comes your way.

Some self-care activities include Yoga, eating healthy foods, exercising, etc.

Thereby, helping you have the mental toughness to deal with the stress that different challenges might bring your way.

Consequently, helping you have a thick skin.

Practice Self-Love

Self-love can help you develop a thick skin against mean spirited comments from people around you.

Apart from dealing with self-criticisms, self-love also helps you handle external criticisms.

At the end of the day, only you matter.

It doesn’t matter what anyone says or does to you.

This is not to encourage narcissism or narcissistic personality(excessive love for one’s self).

Rather it is about not letting the negative words of people get to you, bring you down, and make you feel less of yourself.

When people throw mean-spirited comments at you, always remember that your emotional and physical well-being matters.

Hence, your focus should be on yourself and not what they say about you.

When you learn to love yourself more and prioritize your well-being over the negative thoughts of people, you’ll become less affected by what they say.

Consequently, helping you feel less concerned about criticisms and developing a thick skin.

Here are some quick tips for building mental toughness to further help you develop a thick skin.

Quick Mental Toughness Tips To Help You To Be More Thick-Skinned

Develop intrinsic motivation
Let go of the things you cannot control
Build good habits such as meditation and exercising regularly
Increase your confidence
Reframe negative thoughts with positive thoughts
Surround yourself with positive people
Practice self-care and self-awareness

Overall, these are little things that you could do that could develop your mental and emotional strength.

Thus, helping you develop a thick skin.

Benefits Of Developing Thick Skin

Here are some of the reasons why it is important for you to develop a thick skin and toughen up.

You’ll become better at handling constructive criticisms either in your business, work, or personal life.
Also, you’ll develop the mental strength to handle or ignore destructive criticisms.
By becoming thick-skinned you’ll be better able to handle challenges and adversity in life generally.
You’ll become move forward and bounce back from challenging situations.