We are a spoiled generation, and the more we forget of our past struggles that shaped and molded our behavior the weaker as a society we become.  In the coaching world you will hear the word mental toughness, this mental toughness that.  I never really bought into the concept of mental toughness totally, but I understand it.   “Mental toughness” comes from exposure to adversity and through hardship and learning from mistakes all the while planning to rebuild.  I think what you will notice is the people that others say are mentally tough often will be the more experienced of your athletes.  Those that seem to be more athletic have been weathered by trials.  What will come of a victim society that wallows in the past.  What will become of a generation that complains all the time about how thing are.  What will become of a new affluenzic generation?  It is a downward spiral into self-deprecation, and at a point there is no turning back.

A similar to concept to mental toughness is pain.  Why is it that pain is a relative concept?  Not all people can handle pain the way some people do.  Some studies (1)(2)even say red heads are actually more susceptible to pain due to their genotype.  From another vantage when you were young, and did manual labor you developed calluses maybe even blisters from using a shovel or a hammer or an ax.  “Thin skinned,” people typically develop a blisters more readily because the skin has not conditioned for work.  The first time you experience a pain it is often the most uncomfortable and likely the most painful.  Though the more times you expose yourself the manual labor the thicker the skin becomes.   After a while you become more callused to the pain, and as your work capacity becomes greater you can do more work, and become hardened to the pain that toil and labor inflicts on you. Similarly mental toughness is about experience.  The more experience you have the easier it will be to endure hard times.  While pain may parallel mental toughness it is not the same in all cases.

History only speaks about the resilient, not everyone has it in them to rise back to their feet when they were knocked down, but it is easier when you follow the shadow of a man or woman who you watched get back up every time.  Ignorance of this construct is sad indeed. In conclusion for self betterment it is a good idea to expose yourself to toil and trauma so that you can desensitize yourself for the sake of this society and it’s future errrr something.

I’m sorry I have not posted much, I will try to post more often but don’t hold your breath lol.

(1)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692342//content/83/2/211.ful
(2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1362956///content/83/2/211.ful