When you hear the word "strength", what is the first image that pops into your head? You perhaps thought of someone who is physically strong. Not just any strong person, but someone with extraordinary strength. Someone who could basically physically lift up anyone or anything and could take on any threat. Well, any physical threat. But what about mental threats?
When you hear the word "strength," you may perhaps think of someone who is mentally strong. Someone who, despite the circumstances that they have been in, not only get past them but excel at it. Someone who uses these experiences to their advantage and they make their story that much more inspiring. But not everyone who faces drastic circumstances excels.
Despite all of the "success stories" you hear in the news, these represent a very small percentage of people. At some point in everyone's lives, we all struggle to get through. But for certain people, getting through the day is a daily battle with the war being life. Life's weapon is the mind, the most powerful weapon in existence. So what is your weapon? How do you win?
Your weapon is your mind too. You see, you are in a constant battle with life to have control over your mind. When life wins, you feel negative emotions. Thoughts such as "Everything sucks" and "I am worthless" start to creep in. As they take over, you could possibly lose your strength due to the intensity of those thoughts. As they become more and more in numbers, your chances of giving into them increases. It is difficult to fight off every single negative thought, especially if they keep on coming and do not show any signs of going away.
You could also gain strength from these battles. When you are able to successfully win these battles against these negative thoughts, against life, you feel accomplished. You have won the battle, so you are therefore closer to winning the war. But if there are failures that follow this success, this success could be seen as just a fluke. Why believe that you can be successful when evidence is pointing towards you being a failure?
Success is typically looked at as the absence of failure. If you succeed, you don't fail. If you fail, you don't succeed. However, this is not a black and white concept. It is impossible to succeed 100% of the time. Does one failure automatically make you a failure? Of course not, as does one success does not automatically make you successful.
Success is not the absence of failure, rather is picking oneself up after failure. It is easy to be accepting of one's success, but being accepting of one's failure is a much more difficult task. To accept it and be able to go into the next battle willing to put on a fight takes true strength. Not only the next battle, but the countless battles no matter what. If you can win every battle thrown at you, good for you. You are strong and can take on great obstacles. But being able to fight battle after battle, regardless of outcome, also takes strength. Success is the desirable outcome, not an indicator of how strong someone truly is.
As a society, we tend to look upon success highly. We reward success. Since when has anyone ever been awarded for failure? Though failure is more common than success, success is what gets talked about. To see someone fail and to go as far as admitting their failure is a rarity. It's seen as shameful, and why would anyone want to admit to something as shameful as failure?
Failure is not the absence of success, rather it is the absence of perfection. Everyone fails, every single person. If everyone just gave up after their first failure, then there would be no successes. We all face obstacles. The strength is in facing them with the success also being the confrontation itself. Every obstacle is a battle, but what becomes an obstacle is up to personal interpretation. This makes every battle someone fights unique to that individual person. So what could be a major obstacle for one person could be a tiny hurdle for another person. That does not make either fight any less important. What truly matters is that you fight. You must fight even when you feel like you cannot anymore, because "when we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change."
Everyone has strength, but this strength isn't usually show until someone is put into a situation where they need to use it. Your circumstances do not define the amount of strength you have; they only showcase your strength. To constantly have to use your strength, that takes a lot of strength. Fighting can wear down someone, but it does not eliminate strength. Instead, it convinces them that they have no strength. This is where your mind can either become your greatest ally or your worst enemy: the battle of whether you can continue on or not, the battle of whether you should accept the negative thoughts or fight to stay positive. You will always lose the battle if you don't fight, but if you keep on fighting you cannot lose the war.
