What does "mental toughness" really mean? I think it means that you have to go beyond the limits set by our minds, and just strive for the beast. When doing something difficult, their is always a little voice in the back of my mind questioning my abilities and what I can actually do, but it is important to shut that voice up by proving it wrong. Sometimes I get homework ,math homework, and I find it so difficult that I don't even want to attempt to do it because I don't want to feel dumb and I just put it off over and over again. It's important to overcome the obstacles that my mind has made and to be tough along the way.
   You definitely do not have to be an athlete to have mental game, because their are plenty of people who are not athletes who may indeed have a stronger mental game than an athlete themselves. One example is people who are in band, I have never been in band , but I know they have mental toughness because they'll get yelled at for being off key and then moments later they will have to continue playing knowing that everyone just saw them getting in trouble and it must be hard to continue playing you instrument. Or when you get your first job and you make mistakes and your boss gets mad at you and you just have to continue doing your job and you can't let it show that you feel like you don' belong. Anyone and everyone has mental toughness and it is something that everyone is born with.
   When I hear the term "mental toughness" I think of my best friend who is in the Navy. I mean I can't imagine how difficult it was for her to make the decision to join the Navy; Not just her but anyone who is serving this country.  I'm pretty sure their was a voice in the back of their mind telling them to just stay where they were at and they overcame that. First they had to make the decision to go and then to go through bootcamp, where people try to break down their mental toughness everytime they get the chance and they still get through it . My point is that  anyone can have mental toughness be in sports, band, the army, or just in every day life.