I like to think that I am mentally strong. I try to always surround myself with those types of people. Ones that are always striving for greater things, super passionate about what they do, and never ever want to settle for anything less. These people are my best friends, and they push me to achieve my goals and are always supportive even if we happen to be competitors too. Let’s go through some traits that I think all mentally strong people have.

For one, every mentally tough person I have met has failed at some point in time, and almost always more than once. Sure, sometimes it’s just small things, and other times it might be a mistake of epic proportions, but these people never let those catastrophes stop them. They get back up, dust themselves off and keep moving toward their goals. In my opinion perseverance is the cornerstone of being mentally strong.

Running off of that point, I have never met someone who expected immediate results when starting toward their goals and dreams. They know that it is achievable and reachable so they start the slow climb to victory, as the cliché goes, 'Rome wasn’t built in a day.' You will not hit your peak the first time, either.

There are points in life when you look around you at all of the people and you see that they may be further ahead than you and you want to be mad, to hate them for achieving sooner or easier than you. Mentally strong people do not show resentment to someone who may be better than them. They see it as a bar that they should surpass and it gives them something to compete against. It's a challenge to them. They are happy for the other person as well. It does nothing for you to be upset about others’ successes.

Mentally tough people do not like to fail, they understand it is a part of success, but they don’t have to love that feeling. They will not keep making the same mistakes over and over and over. They expect to see change and growth and there is no way that you can achieve that without changing your habits for the better. Once you do that, you will see progress.

You can’t grow and change by dwelling on the past; that will just put you in a position that is hard to get out of. Playing the head game is not a wise choice, trust me I know. You cannot keep looking behind you comparing what you are doing now to what you missed out on then. Find your inner peace and move ahead, we already established that mentally strong people don’t like to make the same mistakes and focusing on your past will cause you to fall into the same patterns as before.

Being mentally strong does not seem like a hard thing to be, but it takes will power and the want to become better. Keep your goals in mind, work toward them, keep some of these things in mind as you strive to achieve your dreams and in time you will be mentally tough. It is not something that you are born with. It is something that you want to be.