Ask HN: How do you guys develop mental toughness?

Meditations by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is a must read as well. Another addition to your modern approach recommendation of the stoicism theme is Ryan Holiday's Ego is the Enemy.

PS - There's a really captivating lecture on stoicism in the context of the life of Marcus Aurelius https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5897dMWJiSM

I do the things that scare the shit out of me consistently. The things that you wouldn't even consider an option and that many people might consider impossible. When things get really hard, I lean into the pain. Sometimes the pain will be overwhelming, but it will pass. Eventually you'll get used to the pain and things will get boring, you'll plateau, and then you pick the next mountain that scares the shit out of you to start the cycle all over again.

I think life might be a little like a video game. You need to make sure you conquer all your base mountains first- things like good mental health (stoicism), physical health, and healthy relationships. If those 3 are covered you can bounce back from anything. At least from my experience and my experience includes 2 suicide attempts, starting my own business, and surviving a bunch of bad stuff.

It is really really easy to develop mental toughness from physical exercise. The two go hand in hand. You can't push your body without pushing your mind. Many physical boundaries are mental boundaries. Physical exercise is the easiest way to challenge your mental boundaries if you can.

I love long-distance running. It's an easy way to see and test your boundaries and get fit at the same time. Once you hit your redline or hell when you're running- being able to push through hell and finish is key. Slowly and surely you'll be able to run through longer distances of hell. Remembering that pain, knowing that you can meet your boundaries and surpass them, can help you deal with almost everything. It's a confidence-builder. It translates to mental toughness- doing the things and confronting your personal demons, each personal demon you conquer brings you to a bigger demon, but all the small demons you conquered along the way become your allies.

Whenever I face a tough situation, it's like lol this is nothing compared to the shit I've been through. Or almost like an anime cliche, I've conquered everything that I've come up against so far, I'm not quitting now.

What doesn't kill you, literally makes you stronger. Do all the things that you irrationally think might kill you or that makes you figuratively want to die when you think about it. Your "I'd rather die than do x, y, and z".

In my experience, the figurative dying in "I'd rather die" often feels like failing. So die/fail often. I don't know if you ever get used to it, but you start to like it after a while. It feels like progress. Growth pains that you lean into I guess.

BJJ (especially sparring) and running (nearly) every morning.

Thanks. It's not that bad. I think it's just a personality trait. I don't think I'll ever get rid of this.

What makes you think that mental fortitude is not required for physical toughness? You got it backwards, it's the mind that says the body to quit.

Do harder things progressively. Personally I recommend a certain style of Chan meditation, but its not easy to stick to its training plan. To bootstrap, the easy way is to do it in group so you don't quit - MMA, stoicism whatever is OK but there is much more to mental toughness than that imho.