How to Build Mental Toughness for Special Operations Selections

Building mental toughness, resilience and a better response to stress is something that many people want to improve. Whether challenging yourself with difficult long-term goals or building good habits that lead to discipline and enhanced toughness, the right amount of challenging activity can border on unwise practices that injure you. Here is an excellent question about building mental toughness without going too far and ruining your ability to continue regular physical activity:

Stew, I like your quote: "There is a fine line between mental toughness and stupidity." What are safe ways to test mental toughness if there is a chance of injuring yourself during typical gut checks? Thanks Leif

I have always been a coach who develops mental toughness one small scoop at a time, not by incredibly difficult challenges that, statistically speaking, have a propensity to delay or end your journey to achieve a goal. Unfortunately, many will do challenging events they are unprepared for physically to test their mental toughness.

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For instance, this topic is often brought up by those building their mind and body as they prepare for special operations selections that boast high attrition rates, such as Navy SEAL, SWCC, EOD/Diver, USMC Recon, Air Force Special Warfare, Army Ranger and Special Forces selections. These selections are historically difficult and require significant preparation just to enter the training and even more to graduate.

Complex competitive events are not different from the necessary amount of preparation, especially with ultramarathon-distance events. I do not recommend doing them at first. However, some are determined to do it. I will only agree as a coach to do these types of events if you have 6-12 months to recover before joining the military (in case of injury) and only after many months of specific and progressive preparation before tackling such events.

These events are not the actual gut check in this process. The magic is created by getting up and increasing your running volume day after day. This consistent, long-term preparation builds a scoop of mental toughness and discipline every day. It prepares you for the upcoming goal event to be more durable and hopefully not injured. I am rarely proven wrong when discussing the plan to prepare for a 50- to 100-mile race with a spec ops candidate. I challenge them to a race. It is a five-week race. I will continue to run 25 miles a week for the next five weeks and start the day they run 100 miles. Five weeks later, let's see who has run the most miles. Usually, even with a 100-mile head start on the first weekend, most candidates (not all) cannot run for some reason (shins, feet, ankles, knees, hips) and must rehab/recover from the event. Some have been serious enough to require surgery and delay or disqualify that person from service in extreme cases.

In a nutshell, doing something that injures you for no reason other than it was too much for you to handle physically is stupid, especially if it ruins your training plans for the next several weeks or months. The risk is not worth the reward of pushing through an injury to complete something. You may have to do that to get through a strict spec ops selection, but that is a different situation.

But, to answer your question, there are many ways to build toughness without the high likelihood of injury. Try these daily:

Wake Up Early Before Work or School to Train

It is tough to consistently practice the discipline of going to bed earlier and waking up when you are most comfortable.

Train Outside in the Elements

While preparing to serve, consider adding more of what you will do outdoors throughout training and your job, experiencing the hot, humid (or arid), cold or windy air or the wet, rainy and dirty, sandy ground. Learning to master getting comfortable and being uncomfortable is a daily dose of mental toughness, such as walking outside and showing up ready to work.

Work on Your Weaknesses

No one likes to work on things they are not good at. However, you need to be good at everything to be a tactical athlete going into a high-performing spec ops selection. Leaving a weakness undeveloped will expose it quickly in training and could lead to not meeting the standards, failing, quitting or becoming injured.

Do Something that Scares You

Public speaking, jumping out of a plane, scuba diving at night or open-water swimming can be scary for many people doing it for the first time. If your goals don't scare you, they are not big enough.

There are many ways to build both mental and physical toughness. Doing tough things is the way. You can read about it and watch inspiring videos to get inspired or motivated, but if you want to get tougher, you need to get going. Check out the Military.com Fitness Section for more information on mental toughness training, stress recovery, hard-core workouts, nutrition, sleep and more.

Related: 4 Stages to Develop Mental Toughness

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