Tom Brady’s journey to becoming the greatest football player of all time was never easy. From sitting on the bench at Michigan to being drafted 199th overall in the NFL, or when he posted below-average numbers at the 2000 Combine, there were many moments when giving up could’ve been the easier choice for him.
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But as Brady has often reminded fans throughout his career, it wasn’t talent or luck that carried him through… It was his mental resilience.
In the latest edition of his 199 newsletter, Brady shared how staying strong mentally shaped his successful career by primarily changing his entire outlook on life.
“If you crumble under the weight of expectations, if you can be thrown off by trash talk, or if failure feels like the end of the world, then you will struggle to achieve the goals you were put on this earth to accomplish… If the world can break your spirit or your will, nothing else is going to matter,” he wrote.
Brady explained that mental resilience starts with knowing your purpose. For him, knowing the ‘why’ is paramount than the ‘hows’ and ‘whos’ because it’s purpose that keeps you focused when things go wrong.
“If you don’t know what you’re bouncing back for, the road to recovery can feel steep,” he explained. So, for the GOAT, that purpose was simple: “To get the best out of myself and to be the best for my teammates every day, in every aspect of my life—personal and professional.”
He also spoke about how his mindset changed during college, thanks to his mentor Greg Harden: “In the beginning, if I barely got any snaps in practice, it might send me into a mini-spiral… Working with Greg, I started to view every snap with enthusiasm. Every mistake I made was an opportunity to learn and improve.”
This shift in attitude, Brady says, was one of the most important lessons of his life, as it became his foundation to deal with all the challenges that his NFL life threw at him.
Brady then dropped a really grounded admission by sharing his belief that resilience isn’t something you build alone. Usually, hustle culture and content creators around that sphere propagate the idea that building resilience, like forgiveness, is a lonely road …. only your actions will help achieve it.
But Brady was humble enough to reveal that his grit-building journey required people around him who could guide, support, and push him when needed. “Whenever things got tough, I always had someone to talk to, to console me, to teach and guide me, and when necessary, to kick me in the a**,” he wrote.
Now retired, Brady continues to share the mindset that helped him become a seven-time Super Bowl champion through his weekly newsletter and media appearances.
And he makes it sound easy too, because the message itself is so simple: success isn’t about never falling, it’s about always getting back up. Or as Brady puts it, “If the world can break your spirit, nothing else is going to matter.”
