Mental Training

Here are two helpful ways to think about an obstacle or setback that life throws at you:

“It’s all good mental training.” or “It’s all good: mental training.”¹

Huh?

I should explain.

What is mental training?

Mental training is any endeavor that sculps your mind into one that is healthier, stronger, or more resilient. Mental training could be practicing mindfulness, compassion, gratitude, or patience. It could be pushing yourself to work hard and persevere when you really don’t want to. Mental training could be leaving your comfort zone in an effort to expand it. Or it could be exercising your brain muscles by learning something difficult.

“It’s all good mental training.”

If you say this when you encounter some difficulty or inconvenience, then you’re saying that all such things are opportunities for mental training. You’re taking the view that all challenges, no matter what form they take, share the commonality that they are good ways to train your mind.

Whether you have to deal with a difficult client, get up early to work out, or clean up a mess your dog made, it’s all good mental training.

“It’s all good: mental training.”

Here you’re saying two things. First, “It’s all good,” which is a way of conveying that something seemingly bad is not actually a problem. And second, you’re saying that the reason the supposedly bad thing isn’t a problem is that it’s an occasion for mental training. It’s not bad because it’s useful.

Stuck in traffic? It’s all good: mental training.

Software update forcing you to relearn a program? It’s all good: mental training.

Have a headache, but need to keep a smile on your face because you’re hosting a dinner party? It’s all good: mental training.

First you reframe, then you prove yourself right.

Both of these statements reframe obstacles as opportunities for growth. Both are potentially true: An obstacle really can be used to grow. And then, because you’ve decided to view it this way, you’ll activate a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you see something as mental training, then you’ll use it as mental training.

In one sense, this is a restatement of the classic wisdom, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” While this belief isn’t necessarily true, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially as applied to mental toughness. A major setback or failure can weaken you professionally and injure your prospects, but if you’re determined to learn from it and keep working, you may wind up better off in the long run. A horrible accident that leaves you crippled for the rest of your life certainly hasn’t made you physically stronger, but if you’re determined to live the best life you can, you’ll develop mental strength far beyond what you possessed before the accident.

This concept comes from Travis Macy’s book The Ultra Mindset: An Endurance Champion’s 8 Core Principles for Success in Business, Sports, and Life. Here’s how Macy puts it:

“The idea here is that challenges are part of life. Viewing them as positive, even essential, instruments of ‘mental training’ can build, pebble by pebble, a mountain of inner resilience that will allow you to complete anything to which you are deeply committed.”¹

Not everything is “all good,” of course. I’m speaking of non-tragedies that are supposedly bad, ranging from the small – annoyances, inconveniences, mistakes – to the large – major grievances, significant obstacles, serious failures. I’m not referring to things like abuse, harassment, poverty, a cancer diagnosis, a wildfire, the death of a loved one, or war. While you might be resilient enough to use such experiences as mental training, you’d have to be wearing some pretty thick rose-colored glasses to say they’re “all good.” Quite plainly, they are not.

But for most of the supposedly bad things that happen to you, this can be an empowering tool. Reframing setbacks and challenges as opportunities for mental training will not only make you feel better about difficulties, it will inspire you to use them to push further down the path of becoming better. Remember, your mind is your #1 asset, and life is constantly offering up chances to train it.

¹ Macy, Travis with John Hanc. The Ultra Mindset: An Endurance Champion’s 8 Core Principles for Success in Business, Sports, and Life. Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2015.