Why Mental Fitness Will Be as Big as Physical Fitness in 10 Years

In ten years, I hope everyone talks about mental fitness the same way they talk about physical fitness.

Imagine being able to weigh your happiness/attentiveness/mood on a scale each morning.

Imagine missing your mental workouts for a week, getting an alert, and realizing you’ve been sleeping poorly because you forgot to exercise your mind.

There isn’t a single friend in my life, who I have talked to and hasn’t experienced some form of depression in their lifetime. This is just one of many mental states that can impact your day (most studies show that over 25% of the population suffers from a mental issue every year).

Until mental fitness is a term openly discussed and understood it will not be improved.

Physical fitness has an immediate feedback loop and incentive for maintaining habits (looking great), mental fitness does not. But, mental fitness permeates into all aspects of your life, including physical fitness.

I don’t know what will cause the flip to switch — more research on the brain, greater recognition on the costs of burnout on business, or just a gradual reduction of stigma caused by people speaking up.

Mental fitness is such a huge opportunity to improve people’s lives across the world, it only makes sense that a change will happen in the next 10 years and I’m looking forward to it.

PS I stole the word mental fitness from Bad Feld’s fantastic post on the topic.