You toughen the mind by exposing it to adversity, in the words of Robert Greene.

What is adversity?

Merriam Webster calls it, “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune”.

While I do not subscribe to the belief that anything is misfortune, I believe that all data is neutral, neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so, as a Brit once said, I DO believe that we will face instances of serious or continued difficulty in our pursuit of greatness.

When things don’t go your way.

That’s adversity.

When things suck.

That’s adversity.

But humanity keeps evolving more and more intricate ways to eliminate the process of experiencing adversity, in literally every way possible.

Financial, mental, physical and emotional.

The world has become safe.

Too safe.

Too much cushion.

That leads to soft, milquetoast men.

So you have to create the conditions that expose you to fear and pain in order to toughen your mind.

And the thing that I would add to Robert’s point - is that this is very much like the gym, you have to do this consistently.

Or you can lose your edge.

Your hands can lose the callus very quickly if not exposed to the rough edges of the handle.

And if you don’t already know, here’s the reason to toughen your mind.

It’s the edge.

Your PAIN tolerance is effectively your RISK tolerance.

It also means you can outwork anybody.

It also means you don’t faint at the sight of blood.

It also turns you into the natural leader because leaders are not made when times are easy.

Leaders are born out of the fire. The pain. The uphill battles with dark nights and even darker enemies.

Stay tough out there.