How to build mental toughness

“Mental toughness is often framed as the perseverance that gets you across the finish line:

• Find a way to make it happen
• Push through the pain
• Grind it out to the end

But most days, mental toughness isn’t about crossing the finish line. It’s about getting to the starting line:

• Show up when no one is watching
• Keep your eye on the ball
• Do a little bit every day

Mental toughness is not skipping the days that are easy to skip.”

~  James Clear

I resonate with this quote. It’s a good reminder to me of the importance of consistent consistency; that mental toughness is so frequently built in the every-day doing of drudgery rather than finish line drama.

James Lawrence builds on this idea when he says that we best build mental toughness by engaging in things we don’t enjoy.

James Lawrence is an endurance athlete and motivational speaker. He talks about how “one more rep” or “one more mile” is not the best way of building mental toughness if you’re starting from a place of actually enjoying working out or running. Rather, mental toughness is strengthened when we intentionally do those things that we don’t like or don’t want to do.

He illustrates this with the example of ice plunges. I’m sure that each of us can also think of about a million additional examples of things we don’t like or don’t want to do from our own personal lives that we can use to build mental toughness.

I find this concept – of building mental toughness by intentionally doing those things we dislike – incredibly inspiring. Partly because it makes so much sense to me (I’m a huge fan of logic), and also because it provides me with such incredible opportunities for reframing tasks I hate.

I love reframing – thinking of things and situations through a different lens in order to help me alter my response to them – because it’s so effective for me. Perhaps it’s because of my logical streak; thinking of sometimes in a different way transforms into something new for me.

And James Lawrence’s approach to building mental toughness is a perfect opportunity for this. So rather than viewing my traditionally despised tasks and activities as “things I hate to do” and avoiding them, I’ve now taken to looking at them as “great ways for me to strengthen my mental toughness” and getting excited about doing them.

And it’s been working miracles! It’s really been helping me get certain things done that I’ve traditionally avoided, to my detriment (remember my Bach Flower blend Get Sh*t Done? It’s not by accident I created it!).

Which of course then raises the question: if I’m having an easier time doing them because of being inspired by the building of mental toughness, are they really still building the same mental toughness?…

Have a beautiful month.

~ Sat-Sung

Sat-Sung Solutions
Swap Stress for Sparkle and Success
Bach Flowers | Human Design | Notebooks and Journals