Strength - July 3, 2015

Daily Quote

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Lesson of the Day

As the quote says, strength isn't something people just innately have, it is built and tempered and developed as you struggle. The things that we deal with don't have some set difficulty. Everything has a difficulty based on our own strength. You can very easily see it demonstrated in the gym. One person, who has trained and trained and become strong through years of dedication, hard work, and struggle, can lift a lot more than someone just starting to work out for the first time. Just like that, people who have struggled and persevered and pushed themselves are stronger than those that haven't experienced a whole lot. An example from my life is when I started working fifty to eighty hours a week (it's variable). I jumped from twenty-four to a minimum of fifty, and it was hard. I struggled a lot with the increased workload and the stress. Now I'm in the sixties and it's nothing to me. I can easily work eighty hours in a week and be fine. I grew, I became stronger. Humans are amazing creatures: the more we go through, the stronger we can become. This goes back to personal responsibility, but it's our choice to go on in the face of hardship. You don't have to know the way. You don't need to have the strength to go through it, because you're going to build it. You just have to choose that you aren't going to let the struggle break you, you have to choose to go on, to get back up. You have to choose to grow. That's it, then you persevere. You have it in you, it's up to you to decide.

Questions to Ponder

When have you been weak? When have you struggled and given up? How much have you made it through? How much more can you take? Hint: you're a lot stronger than you may think.

Gratitude

I'm thankful for everything I've been through, it's made me strong and capable of more than I ever thought possible. I'm so glad that I know all that I do, and that every day I'm learning more and growing, that every single day I become greater than I was before. As always, I'm thankful for all of you reading this. Thank you all, and I hope you all have a fantastic day. Find something to be happy for today, even just one thing.