Pragmatists,
What does it mean to be tough?
Is it giant rippling muscles, great cardio, and the ability to deliver a nasty roundhouse kick?
Although it’s an enticing idea, no, this really isn’t what it means to be tough.
After all, I’ve seen plenty of people that have atrophied all their muscles, can hardly breathe without assistance, and need a wheelchair to get around.
They’re the terminally ill patients that come into the E.R, and I’d say they’re some of the toughest badasses that remain on this earth.
But what makes these people tough?
It’s their spiritual endurance.
Toughness, resilience, whatever you want to call it, it’s something that surpasses physical limitations.
It can’t be helped if you have a 37 degree curve in your spine that kills your ambitions to be an infantry officer.
It also can’t be helped if your legs don’t work and you’ll never be able to run a marathon.
Maybe your hearing is going out and slowly but surely, everyone around you is getting tired of shouting and are frustrated by your deafness.
But what can be helped is the attitude you have. You’re ready to deal with these setbacks. The things that would normally destroy a weaker person are mere glancing blows to you.
Checking account blew up? You can work harder and make that money back. Then again, it’s just a bunch of green paper at the end of the day, not your life.
Failed to get that personal record at the gym? Drop the weight and get back to your foundations. Keep trying and go for it next week.
Didn’t pass your exams? No one’s saying you can’t try again. Doesn’t matter if you have to do the class over again— that just gives you more time to get familiar with the craft.
Terminal diagnosis? None of us were guaranteed long lifespans. You can make the best of it and quite frankly, you’re now free from seeing your mind go with demented old age.
Big or small problems can all be opportunities to cultivate toughness. That spiritual endurance is bolstered by several things: good habits, cognitively reassuring ourselves, and laughing off our problems.
If we don’t find a way to cultivate our personal toughness, we’ll crumble the next time a major blow strikes us. We can shrug off the small things, but what about that life-changing event, like a death in the family or a crippling injury?
Cultivating personal toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be regularly exercised. The Stoics and Cynics of old used to take cold showers, swim rivers and hug statues in winter, walk barefoot, and sleep on the ground in the effort to cultivate resilience.
But of course, not many people are willing to do those things. There’s still plenty of avenues to get tough in a day where convenience is the norm.
It’s putting in the extra effort, doing the hard things, and making yourself less susceptible to that nagging laziness that wants us to put things off until tomorrow, even though tomorrow never comes.
The weak person’s tomorrow is an eternity away, the strong person’s tomorrow just got bumped to today.
Until next time,
Eli
Good article Eli. Well timed for me personally. :)