6 Tips for Developing Mental Toughness on the Daily

JUNE 18, 2021

6 Tips for Developing Mental Toughness on the Daily

What you need to put in place to take your mental fortitude to the next level.

By House Fitness

We know why mental toughness is important — but what can we do to maintain or practice mental toughness on a daily basis? How can we incorporate it as a daily practice alongside our training?

1

Find Activities that Challenge You

It’s important to find activities that are both accessible and challenge you. If you don’t challenge yourself, you can’t improve. No challenge = stagnation.

Do keep in mind that it is possible to overdo challenges (such as running a 10k as a novice runner). Rather than stretch yourself thin or burn yourself out before you reach your goal, take a ‘swinging axe’ approach and build up to bigger challenges by first taking a stab at smaller ones that will lead you to your bigger goal.

2

Dose the Suffering

You have to be uncomfortable in order to push your comfort zone and make progress — but there’s a spectrum. Ultimately, you should feel safe (keep the Hierarchy of Needs in mind) — but creating space to ‘suffer’ is critical to developing the mental discipline needed to push yourself forward in your training.

Try starting your day off with a cold shower. By doing something that makes you uncomfortable first thing in the morning you are starting your day off with something you don’t want to do which strengthens your mental toughness muscle. It’s easy to sleep in and take a warm shower — but those things don’t drive us forward.

  
    “It’s a lot more than mind over matter. It takes relentless self-discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day.”
    
    — David Goggins

3

Take Daily Action

Take action daily — no matter how big or small. Perfection is not important when it comes to training your body and mind — consistency is. When you stay consistent with your practices every single day, you are challenging your discipline to follow through which strengthens your mental muscle.

Action beats inaction. One is more than zero. 1 > 0

Really keep in mind that it is not about obtaining perfection. Just do it — and especially when you don’t want to do it. Don’t make any excuses for yourself.

4

Don’t Wait for Motivation

Discipline beats motivation every time. You can’t wait to be motivated in order to get something done. You may never feel motivated — what then?

We all have goals that we want to reach with our training, but in the absence of motivation, you need to rely on your ability to be disciplined. Otherwise, you won’t achieve your goals and you’ll remain stagnant.

  
   “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.”
    
    — Jocko Willink

5

Set Goals and Don’t Punish Your Mistakes

Setting realistic training goals will set you up for success. By creating a realistic plan you won’t be disappointed when you can’t reach monstrous goals within an impossible timeframe.

And even if you do miscalculate and don’t reach your goals, don’t punish your mistakes. Knocking yourself down is not doing you any favors. Be honest with yourself and look at how you can learn from your mistakes and improve going forward.

6

Reflect

As important as it is to take action, you also need to slow down and reflect. Reflection is an important tool for building realistic self-talk, recognizing negative thought patterns and behaviors, practicing gratitude, tracking your progress and growth, building self-confidence, and reducing your stress and anxiety.

Designate time and space to reflect. I recommend journaling as it gets you away from any screens. The process alone of writing in a journal takes some time and forces you to slow down too.

And just like any other practice, you need to be consistent in your periods of reflection. You get out of it what you put in.

For more prompts on developing your mindset and mental toughness, we recommend reading: 21 Mindset Challenges for Unlocking Your Maximal Potential: Tactics to Forge an Unbeatable Mind, by R.J. Kayser