Warrior Mindset

The phrase is used in military and law-enforcement training. The book Warrior Mindset: Mental Toughness Skills for a Nation's Peacekeepers (Asken, Christensen and Grossman) was written for police officers.

Military training still uses the term. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) runs a Warrior Mindset project. It updates videos for the Army's mandatory Performance and Resilience Enhancement (PRE) training under Army Regulation 350-53. The videos teach coping and problem-solving, connectedness and protective environmental factors, in realistic scenarios. These are coping skills, not combat tactics.

The US Army video shows six skills and the US Navy teaches a similar set, including a 5-second-in, 7-second-out breathing drill. Several overlap, such as self-talk and breathing.

These skills were designed for soldiers and recruits.

The closest researched idea is mental toughness, a personal trait, measured by questionnaires, that describes coping with pressure and setbacks. It is linked to better performance and lower stress, but the studies show association, not proof that training causes it. A 2017 systematic review in Frontiers in Psychology covered 51 papers describing 56 studies. It associates mental toughness with better academic and work performance, lower perceived stress, fewer depressive symptoms and better sleep.

The same review lists limits: heavy use of self-report, few long-term studies and few intervention studies. It also notes that about half the variation in mental toughness is attributed to genetics. So treat each habit as an experiment on yourself, not a promise.

Warrior habits include stopping to recover and asking for help, which hustle culture leaves out.

Warrior habits versus hustle culture, side by side

A simple test: if your routine has no step where you stop or ask someone, it is hustle, however disciplined it feels.

Pick one pressure moment a day and score your steadiness from 1 to 5 straight afterwards. This is the Pressure Skills Card. It adapts the Army and Navy skills and has not itself been tested.

Pass or fail. On days 1, 3, 5 and 7, use two or more skills in your pressure moment. On days 2, 4 and 6, use none. Score each moment 1 to 5 straight afterwards. Compare the two averages. A gap of 1 point or more counts as a pass. If there is no gap, change the skill, not the standard. For a longer daily practice, see the guide to meditation for entrepreneurs.

A warrior mindset is most often confused with resilience, mental toughness and hustle. They are related but different.

• Resilience: the American Psychological Association defines it as "the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility". It is the result a warrior mindset aims for.
• Mental toughness: the researched trait, measured by questionnaires, behind the military term.
• Hustle culture: long hours as proof of commitment. It is not a skill set.
• Entrepreneur mindset: a wider question of how you think about building a business. See Entrepreneur Mindset.
• Limiting beliefs: the stories that stop you acting. See Limiting Beliefs.

Our Private Coaching is a three-month programme. Month 1, Inner Awareness, helps you understand your nature and quiet overthinking. Month 3, Living the Wisdom, is about applying peace in real life, under real pressure. The Heart of Business is our group programme, with interactive sessions that support career shifts, relationship changes and inner blocks. It runs as single sessions or flexible packages.

We do not teach military skills. If you want to know whether a mindset coach or a life coach suits you, read Mindset Coach vs Life Coach. To ask about fees or fit, contact us, call +91 7760095707 or email rohinimundra@rohinimundra.com.