What Is Mental Fitness? Meaning, Habits and Real Examples

Mental fitness is the set of habits that help your mind handle pressure, recover from setbacks and think clearly enough to make decisions. It is not the same as mental health, and a personal routine is not a treatment for mental illness. This page gives a plain definition, separates the neighbouring terms and shows what the habits look like in six real lives.

Those lives include Maurice Sauzier, known as Mo: a psychologist and exercise physiologist who had spent 25 years in the fitness and wellbeing industry when he hit his lowest point at 50.

Mental fitness, mental health and mental toughness

People sometimes search for “mental health fitness” when they mean ways to look after their mind. The terms overlap, but they point to different questions. These are practical distinctions for reading the examples below.

MensLine's mental fitness guide describes practices for looking after your mind. For the routine side of mental toughness, read how self discipline works.

You can train regularly and still need care. You can also keep performing while struggling, as Mo's experience makes clear.

Move your body on purpose

Choose an activity with a reason to return to it: a session with someone, a skill to learn or a place you enjoy being.

Shane Hasler had cancer in his early twenties, lost a kidney and experienced anxiety afterwards. On episode 4, he describes what boxing gave the years that followed:

So it was just like for those eight or nine years where I was boxing, it was just all about boxing and just gave me great purpose.

On the same episode, Paul describes three or four gym sessions a week and plans to add boxing once or twice. His account includes not drinking and eating well.

Sneaker designer Leo Gonzalez trains with his 15 year old son. On episode 20, he explains what he tells his kids:

It's not only about image, it's about your health and how you feel.

There is research behind exercise's relevance here. Noetel and colleagues' review in the BMJ, published on 14 February 2024, analysed 218 studies involving 14,170 participants meeting clinical thresholds for depression. It found reductions in depression compared with active controls. Walking or jogging, yoga and strength training were among the more effective forms, with greater effects at higher prescribed intensity. Confidence in the evidence was low for walking or jogging and very low for other treatments. The authors place exercise alongside psychotherapy and antidepressants as a treatment option.

Shane's purpose and Leo's time with his son give the activity a place in their lives. Start by identifying what would make your own next session worth returning to.

Hold one priority at a time

Write down what is competing for your attention, then choose what needs action first.

On episode 7, Mo describes someone on a client's leadership team who was not coping with her list of priorities. He asked whether she wanted a different way to look at it. With her agreement, he applied a risk framework: likelihood and consequence. Which item mattered most if it was left unattended?

He then asked her to get out of her seat for five minutes and think before acting. When she returned with three priorities, he brought her back to the risk matrix to identify one.

Try that sequence on a crowded day: list the tasks, consider the consequences of delay, select the first action, then take a short pause. The point of the list is to decide what comes next. You still have other responsibilities, but you have stopped giving all of them the same place in the queue.

Check how you show up

Pick a conversation from today and look at what you did in it. Mo's ABC model separates three parts:

• Attitude: what you are thinking and feeling, which others cannot see directly.
• Behaviour: what you do and how you enter the conversation.
• Consequence: the impact that behaviour has on the people there.

But what I can see is how you show up.

What the leader feels and what everyone else experiences can be different.

For a practical review, describe something visible: you interrupted, answered before hearing the question or gave someone time to finish. Then name one adjustment for the next conversation.

Let go of the loss

Review what happened and identify what you can change next time. Then notice when you have stopped reviewing and started replaying.

Professional boxer Jackson England discusses his early losses on episode 16. He has views about which decisions were fair, but he also recognises what dwelling costs him:

You need to be able to let go of it.

Paul describes sitting with a business loss for a while, then usually returning the next morning ready to act. Neither account requires pretending the result felt fine.

Try writing down what happened, what you learned and the next decision it changes. If the same thought returns later, ask whether it adds anything to that review.

Be hard on yourself in a healthy way

Keep the criticism specific to something you can work on. Jackson gives a name to the version he is moving away from:

I like to say I'm a recovering perfectionist.

Later in the conversation, he describes what he is trying to do now:

Me being hard on myself in a healthy way now.

Paul answers with a moment from his own life coaching. He reports his coach saying:

Paul, have some self compassion now.

He says it put him in tears.

Mo makes a related point in his conversation: without compassion and care for himself, he has no energy left to care for someone else. For your own review, name the mistake and the repair. Missing an agreed deadline gives you something to discuss and change; a sweeping verdict about your worth gives you no next action.

Talk to someone before it is a crisis

Choose someone you can tell the unfinished version to, including the part you are avoiding. You do not need a polished explanation before starting a conversation.

Jerry Fraser was 35 years sober at the time of episode 14. Describing the start of that process, he says he went to his GP. Offered group therapy, he asked for individual counselling.

I just want to talk to someone.

The counsellor he saw had experienced alcoholism himself. Jerry identifies that conversation as the start of his journey.

His account also shows that asking for help can include saying what sort of conversation you need. You could begin by telling a trusted person that something has been difficult and asking for time to talk.

Keep the reps going when nothing is wrong

Pick one practice to return to this week. The self discipline guide covers arranging a routine and coming back after a miss.

Jackson describes an approach to training that goes back to childhood, including running before school and training twice a day, sometimes three times. That is his sporting life; the useful question for your week is where your chosen practice will fit.

Mental fitness also need not look serene. Jackson describes the ring as his calm place. Leo talks about trying ice baths and going to the beach in the morning, but when Paul asks about meditation and breath work, he is direct:

I never done that.

There is no need to turn him into a convert to complete the list. His account includes family training and a design career in which he says he has never felt like quitting. Choose a practice you can honestly describe doing, then review how it fits your life.

Where mental fitness ends and treatment begins

Mo was a psychologist and exercise physiologist with 25 years in the fitness and wellbeing industry. Shortly after landing his dream role at 50, he hit his lowest point. His episode describes the road back from depression and suicidal thoughts through his GP, a mental health plan and talk therapy. He now runs men's workshops built on what he learned.

If what you are experiencing is depression, anxiety that will not lift or thoughts of suicide, that is a mental health matter. The first step is a GP, not another habit to master. Mo's own path included professional care; his knowledge and routines did not remove that need. Mental fitness habits can sit alongside treatment, but they cannot replace it.

If any of this is close to home: in Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is 1300 22 4636, both 24 hours. In an emergency, call 000.

How do you know if you are mentally fit?

There is no single score that answers this. The following are practical markers drawn from the conversations, not a test:

• You can return to a setback without letting it occupy the whole week.
• You can name the one thing that needs your attention today.
• You can say what you have been avoiding.
• You have someone you talk to before things get bad.
• You can review your behaviour without being cruel to yourself.

Use them to choose something to practise, rather than to award yourself a pass or fail. For example, if you cannot name the next priority, try Mo's list and risk questions on one actual decision today.

Where to go from here

Read or listen to the full conversations for the context around these examples.

• Episode 7: From Suicide Ideation to Social Impact, with Maurice Sauzier, on priorities, self compassion and getting professional help.
• Episode 16: Pro Boxing and the Pursuit of Greatness, with Jackson England, on losses, perfectionism and Paul's self compassion lesson.
• Episode 20: Barista to Sneaker Designer, with Leo Gonzalez, on family, training and continuing his work.
• Episode 4: Cancer, Boxing and Rebuilding Life, with Shane Hasler, on anxiety after cancer and finding purpose in boxing.
• Episode 14: 35 Years Sober and the Oyster King, with Jerry Fraser, on asking for counselling.
• Self Discipline: What It Is and How to Build It, on arranging routines you can return to.
• What Is Adversity? Meaning, Types and Real Examples, on difficult circumstances and the people around you.