How to Develop Mental Toughness

You hear the word thrown around often…”He’s mentally tough.” “Dang, talk about mental toughness.” “You can’t rattle that guy; he’s so mentally tough.”

But what the heck does mental toughness actually mean?

Mental toughness can be defined as the “measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sports, education and the workplace.” It can also be described as “any set of positive attributes that helps a person cope with difficult situations.” (See here).

Every single one of us, whether you’re a teacher, professional athlete, high school student or stay at home parent, deals with difficult situations; I could name ten of them off the top of my head. Therefore, we all need to develop mental toughness.

So how the heck do you develop mental toughness?

“You get tough by doing tough things.” A fellow wrestler passed this on to me, and he got it from a fellow wrestler. It has stuck with me since that day.

Here are five ways to start developing your mental toughness:

• Mend a strained relationship. Make the call.
• Volunteer to speak in a public setting.
• Hold a midrange pushup position for as long as you can.
• Go to a party and refrain from eating and drinking junk.
• Wake up at 3 AM, do 50 jumping jacks, then go back to bed.

Silly? Maybe to some people, but if you’re full of DRIVE and PURPOSE, it’s probably a little bit less silly.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven’t already, and listen to my interview with Cary Kolat on A Fighter’s Mindset – The Spaniard Podcast. There are probably 20 takeaways that can dramatically impact your mindset and mental toughness. You can listen to it here.

While you’re at it, if you resonate with the idea of developing your mental toughness, join us in the AMX Fight Club. You’ll be surrounded by a group of like minded individuals who’ll help you in that pursuit.

Life’s a Fight. Carpe Diem. Fight Well.

Spaniard