How to Be Strong: Tips for Building Mental Toughness

Mental strength is the resilience to withstand the hardships life throws at you. It’s a combination of self-esteem, open-mindedness, and a willingness to do the hard work necessary to overcome challenges.

This sort of strength is essential to your overall mental health. When you shore it up, you’re less likely to fall into negative frames of thinking. When you end up in a stressful situation or negative thought pattern, you’ll have a better ability to withstand it.

Many mentally strong people are also very successful people. For example, entrepreneurs must deal with the reality of risk, the possibility of rejection, and other hurdles on a daily basis. Mental strength allows them to face these sorts of challenges head-on rather than feel as if they must avoid them to live happily.

Strong-minded people have a much easier time getting through the challenges of life. Keep these three benefits in mind as you motivate yourself to shore up mental strength:

1. 1. Greater resilience: When you put effort into maintaining your “mental muscles,” you become far more likely to handle difficult situations with grace, dignity, and resilience. Just as working to increase your physical strength helps you lift heavier and heavier objects, bolstering your mental strength can help you deal with uncomfortable emotions and situations better than you ever could previously.
2. 2. Improved adaptability: By taking small steps to improve your mental strength, you become more open to all life has to offer. If you realize you can truly handle anything life throws your way—good or bad—it’s easy to take positive actions no matter the circumstances. You can bounce back from hard situations and keep yourself from becoming complacent during easier times. Cultivating this sense of adaptability and openness is essential to personal development.
3. 3. Increased self-confidence: When you have a greater reservoir of inner strength to draw from, you’ll feel less prone to self-doubt. While you’ll likely still have negative thoughts from time to time, you’ll also have an easier time reframing these thoughts or channeling your energy into more positive thinking. Additionally, the more stressful situations you overcome, the greater the sense of strength you’ll feel to handle the next one life sends your way.

Mentally strong people can meet life’s challenges, regardless of the circumstances. Keep these tips in mind to take your mental strength to the next level:

• Challenge yourself. Step out of your comfort zone regularly to boost your mental strength. Adopt a personal growth mindset and set goals in both the long term and short term. Challenges are a part of life anyway, so actively seek some out on occasion to prepare you to rise to the moment when others come your way.
• Exercise physically. Mental toughness is part of your more holistic physical health. Keeping all aspects of your body functioning optimally sets you up for success in maintaining your mental strength, too. Eat well and exercise regularly—you’ll have more energy and vitality with which to face life’s challenges as a result.
• Establish positive habits. The actions we take in each moment of our daily lives color our entire existence. Bad habits and negative thinking detract from mental strength, while healthy habits and positive self-talk lay the groundwork for increased resilience, confidence, and adaptability. Aim for at least eight hours of sleep a night. Be vigilant in noticing when you lapse into self-defeating beliefs about yourself. Practice gratitude. Try journaling about your day, noting what went well and what could use improvement.
• Give yourself grace. Self-help is a constant process, so it’s important to adopt a forgiving and compassionate attitude toward yourself. The strongest people in the world still have a hard time facing life challenges from time to time. If you waste time meeting a goal or you flag in sticking to a New Year’s resolution, that’s all right—you’re only human. Everyone makes mistakes and faces tough times—the important thing is realizing you always have a chance to try again.
• Practice mindfulness. Meditation enables you to pay attention to the power of the present moment and reinforces that most of the little things stressing you out are already in the past or mere potentialities in the future. Spend some alone time simply breathing and recharging every day if you can. There are now apps and online guides to help you in your mindfulness journey, too.
• Surround yourself with support. Mentally strong people aren’t islands unto themselves—they generally have people and resources supporting them. Work with a psychotherapist to better yourself. Pick up a bestselling book about self-help you’ve been meaning to read. See if your best friend or another loved one would like to work on the same goal together, so you can hold each other accountable.
• Take care of yourself. Sometimes you need a break, and self-care gives you that opportunity. Just as rest is essential to making gains with your physical strength, the same is true for your mental well-being. In your everyday life, take moments to cherish the little things. Watch a show you love or listen to a podcast that always makes you laugh. Learn about things that interest you. Have a nice dinner. Relax and take care of yourself in whatever way you think is best.

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