Mental toughness is often described as a psychological edge that helps people endure challenges, overcome adversity, and achieve more success. There are many common myths about mental toughness that can influence your beliefs about where it comes from and your willingness to work at getting more of it. Big businesses, elite athletes, and now military leaders are interested in mental toughness because it helps you overcome challenges, achieve optimal performance, and maintain readiness. Check out these 7 common myths and facts about mental toughness.
Myth #1: Mental toughness is something you either have or you don’t.
Fact: Chances are you were born with some aspects of mental toughness, or you might have some of the personality traits that contribute to it. Still, you can learn and develop many of the attributes that make up mental toughness—at any age. Some aspects of mental toughness, such as maturity and perspective, grow as you get older. But when it comes to learning skills, there are advantages to starting early.
Myth #2: If it ain’t broke, no need to fix it.
Fact: For Warfighters, preventive maintenance on equipment is key to readiness. Just as you wouldn’t wait until a piece of gear was completely broken to fix it, the same logic applies to your mind. There are plenty of mental skills you can proactively practice on a daily basis, which might prevent more serious issues in the future.
Myth #3: Mental toughness is just about your mind.
Fact: Your body and mind are connected, and they influence each other. It’s important to learn skills that might optimize all factors that impact your performance. For example, you might be prone to beating yourself up all the time and need to focus on changing the how you talk to yourself. But if your pounding heart is throwing you off your game, you can learn strategies to manage your body’s responses through breathing and relaxation.
Myth #4: I can only build mental toughness by myself.
Fact: Your family, teammates, leaders, and other influential people in your life can enable your growth and development. In fact, having one trusting, abiding relationship can boost your resilience when things get tough. Mental toughness grows when you look to those around you for support, encouragement, and critical feedback.
Myth #5: Mental toughness is about ignoring emotions.
Fact: Mental toughness is about identifying, managing, and finding helpful and constructive ways to express your feelings. Perhaps it’s learning some coping strategies for tough emotions that are throwing you off track or getting in the way of your relationships. Mental toughness also is about harnessing feelings such as anger and frustration—and knowing how to use them so that you can do your best.
Myth #6: Mentally tough people never feel stressed.
Fact: Everyone feels the impact of stress at some time in his or her life. Mentally tough people balance their high-speed lives with plenty of recovery. By developing healthy-sleep habits or learning mind-body strategies to help decompress, mentally tough people make rest a priority.
Myth #7: Mentally tough people never fail.
Fact: Failure is essential to building mental toughness: If you never experience failure, you might not have the chance to learn and grow from it. Even though mentally tough people fail all the time, they’re still not afraid to fail. What also sets them apart is how they handle themselves when things don’t turn out as planned. They work hard to see what contributed to the failure, seek help, and try new solutions, and they work even harder to prevent it from happening again.
Debrief/Bottom line
Warfighters work hard to stay physically fit and mission-ready. By learning the facts about mental toughness, you also can reshape how you think about strengthening your body and your mind for performance optimization. For more resources on how to develop mental toughness, visit HPRC’s Performance Psychology section.