Ten thousand people over fifty, followed for twelve years. The ones who handled hardship best were far more likely to still be alive. Nobody’s training grit. Let’s fix that.
Ten thousand people over fifty. Same questionnaire. Followed for twelve years.
Ten years in, 61 out of 100 of the least resilient were still alive. For the most resilient, it was 84 out of 100. The difference wasn’t money. It wasn’t cholesterol. It was how well they handled getting hit.
People will rearrange their whole lives to cut a health risk. Nobody’s lining up to train how they handle hardship. Nobody’s training grit.
In this solo episode of Warrior Mindset, I walk through a study in BMJ Mental Health that linked psychological resilience to a lower risk of death, even after accounting for disease and unhealthy habits. Then we look at what it actually measured, which reads a lot like a martial arts curriculum.
We get into:
- The survival staircase and why every step up counts
- Why the number drops from 53% to 38%, and why 38% still matters
- Perseverance, calmness, purpose, self-reliance and facing some things alone, and how we train every one on the mat
- Why the link was stronger in women, and what that means for men
- You don’t pick your genes, but you can pick your training
- The resilience bank: the withdrawals that come later and four deposits you make now
- The old guy at the gym, and what he knows that you don’t yet
- A three-deposit challenge (I’m doing it too)
Toughness gets you through the hit. Resilience gets you through the decades.
Resources mentioned
- BMJ Group press release: https://bmjgroup.com/ability-to-cope-well-with-adversity-in-older-age-linked-to-lower-death-risk/
- BBC Science Focus: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/resilience-cuts-death-risk
- The study: “Association between psychological resilience and all cause mortality in the Health and Retirement Study,” BMJ Mental Health (2024), Sun Yat-sen University and Karolinska Institutet
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.61
- Seneca, On Providence
- Earlier episode on calmness under pressure: “The Purposeful Pause”
