Notes On Mental Toughness
The truth about mental toughness and three ways to build it.
Post summary
- I recently gave a talk on mental toughness. I'll cover some points from that talk, including:
- The conflicting and ambiguous research on mental toughness.
- How I think about mental toughness in a way that I and others have found useful.
- Three fundamentals of mental toughness and how to build them.
- The result: You'll be able to accomplish more and perform better—all with less stress.
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The post
Last week I was in Bozeman, Montana, to give a talk at MTNTOUGH's TOUGHFEST.
MTNTOUGH is a fitness app for people who like do epic outdoor activities—backcountry hunting, skiing, mountaineering, trail running, backpacking, etc.
TOUGHFEST is their annual community gathering. Hundreds of people come to work out, volunteer, think out loud, and celebrate the power of community and the outdoors.
Dustin Diefenderfer, the founder of MTNTOUGH, asked me to speak about mental toughness because the psychological quality is critical for success in outdoor pursuits and living life well.
It was 8 PM and the sun was beginning to set over the surrounding mountains when I began my talk.
In the weeks before, I'd thought a lot about mental toughness. This wasn't necessarily easy, because mental toughness isn't as straightforward as we often think.
The term "mental toughness" has become popular in sports, fitness, work, and military circles. It originated in legitimate psychology to basically describe the ability to remain calm, perform well, and persist when games, events, or life get challenging.
For example, some psychologists have defined it as "a psychological resource that is salient for challenging or stressful circumstances." Over the past two decades, hundreds of studies have been published on the topic.
Where mental toughness went wrong
But over time, mental toughness has been "bastardized, commercialized, and given magical powers." That's a strong statement—and that strong statement is from a team of researchers in the U.K., who studied mental toughness and how it’s now positioned in popular culture.
Those scientists concluded that it’s a “pseudo-concept” that isn’t sound psychology but is instead a catchphrase.
I get their point.
I've seen "mental toughness" used to promote all kinds of wacky ideas. For example, expensive retreats where pseudo-military instructors scream at you as you do thrasher workers, claiming the ordeal is going to help you get "mentally tougher" and better at everything. Exhibit A.
Of course, there will always be some misguided actors.
The truth about mental toughness
But I think those U.K. scientists are being a bit pedantic. They seem to be upset that non-scientists took their psychological language and used it in a way they don't agree with.
Most people are using ideas around mental toughness in a way that's going to improve their life.
And here's the thing: Even scientists can't agree on how to define mental toughness. One heavily-cited article opens with the following:
The literature on mental toughness is characterized by a general lack of conceptual clarity and consensus as to its definition, as well as a general failure to operationalize the construct in a consistent manner.
This ambiguity maddens researchers.
But for the rest of us, perhaps the term's ambiguity is a feature rather than a bug. It means that we can define mental toughness for ourselves in a way that helps us.
I see mental toughness as an ability to have perspective and make wise, long-term decisions in the face of stress and challenges.
And I think there are a few ways to get there—to build my idea of mental toughness. Here are three that have helped me.
