After cutting weight for a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) tournament a few weeks back, I realized something. Mental endurance is so much harder to achieve than physical endurance.
Much of mental endurance deals with denying yourself. Denying yourself comfort, or food, or extravagant gifts, or the comforts of home.
However, denying yourself is often needed for causes bigger than ourselves.
Whether it's denying yourself extra Christmas gifts so that you can donate more money to those in true need or denying yourself the comfort of lying in bed for an extra hour so that you can go to the gym, it takes work. And it takes practice.
Start small. Find something today that you need to deny yourself for the great good (in our culture, food and money are easy places to start!). And most of all, don't stop after today. Keep practicing!