Choose Strength

Today's blog post is brought to you by Mike Gillette of CriticalBench.com and REALlifeDefense.com. I thought this topic to be important as we see it in our kids learning to make decisions for themselves and how decisions shape your day, month, year and life. We have all made good and bad decisions and decisions we thought were good, not turn out they way they were intended. But the key take away I believe is that choices, decisions and strength are very much connected and this article puts that fact very eloquently.

Ever had a battle in your mind over what you're doing and what you know you SHOULD do? Ever struggle over what you should do when it's different from what you WANT to do? The relationship between what we want to do and what we should (or should not) do illuminates the presence or absence of Personal STRENGTH in our lives. Although Strength may seem like something permanent, it is often a fleeting thing. We are only as strong as our last strong choice. I repeat... We Are Only As Strong As Our Last Strong Choice. And if that last strong choice is a distant memory, then so is your Strength. When you look at someone who you consider to be strong, you are actually looking at a paradox. You might see a person who appears to embody power or a collection of achievements and presume that this is all because they possess the quality we call Strength. But strength is not an internal quality or external attribute. It is, instead, a by-product of accumulation. It is only through the accumulation of choices, Strong Choices, that a person reveals the presence of Strength in their own life. So where’s the paradox? The paradox is in our own understanding of the Strong people in our midst. Although a strong person may seem impervious to The Forces of Weakness all around them, in actuality they are not. Only a person who prioritizes making strong choices will realize just how many weak choices surround them all the time!

Whenever you are faced with the prospect of making a Strong Choice, you are likewise forced to consider the contrasting Weak Alternative. The temptation to make weak choices is just as great for a strong person as it is for anyone else. Herein lies the less obvious and more humbling aspect of the pursuit of strength. For people who follow the path of least resistance and make choices based upon expedience or comfort, no such self-examination is necessary. Why? Because weak choices are easy. They don’t require any struggle. And, in many cases, weak choices are the more attractive choice to make. Strength, like Weakness, is cumulative. It is both a habit and an end state. The pursuit of Strength (in all its forms) becomes easier the more it is practiced. But it never becomes so easy that it can completely displace weakness. This is why, ultimately, Strength itself is a struggle. A struggle to attain and a struggle to keep. Because of this, Strength has enormous VALUE. A value that cannot be overestimated and should never be taken for granted. How Strong Are You? As Strong as your last Strong Choice. THAT's how strong you really are. So Choose Strength For Your Self. Right NOW, and in every moment. Then Keep Choosing It. Yes, you will struggle. But that's a good thing. If it were easy, everyone would be strong. The more you continue to choose Strength, the more you set your self apart from weakness. The more you Choose Strength, the more you Strong and Powerful you Become.