Borrowing Strength Builds Weakness

Borrowing strength builds weakness is a concept that hit close to home with me.

When you borrow strength from others, you build weakness in your own character.  And just to be clear, we’re not talking about effective delegation.

Trying to do everything yourself is not only ineffective and impractical, but it’s selfish and just plain wasteful.  What we’re talking about here is the idea of staying within your comfort zone, avoiding risk, calling it quits too early, asking for help before you really try, letting your inner weakness take over before you allow your inner strength the opportunity to build you up for the next time, etc.

One of the realities of life is that challenge, struggle, and difficulty will always turn up on your path.  You can count on it.  And what we’re here to remind you of today, is that the other reality of life is that you always have 100% control over your mindset and how you choose to handle those challenges, struggles, and difficulties when they turn up.  Are you going to lie down in a corner and assume a fetal position?  Or are you going to dig in your toes and charge forward?!  Are you going to accept your fate as having been dealt a poor hand with poor circumstances and people in your life?  Or are you going to take control of your choices and play your hand in a creative, powerful, meaningful way? Are you going to choose flight?  Or to fight?!  The choice is yours.

And remember, as my experiences have showed me, you do have a choice.

#1

“Ask not for lighter burdens but for broader shoulders.” ~ Jewish Proverb

#2

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

#3

“Never be ashamed of a scar.  It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” ~ Unknown

#4

“Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.” ~ Anthony Robbins

#5

“There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’  No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.” ~ Dalai Lama

#6

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

#7

“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

#8

“I’m stronger because I had to be, I’m smarter because of my mistakes, happier because of the sadness I’ve known, and now wiser because I learned.” ~ Unknown

#9

“I keep a prism hanging near the entrance to my home. Its beauty, made possible only by the broken nature of the glass from which it is constructed, serves as a constant reminder that even the broken pieces within each and every one of us can serve as a source of light. It’s a lesson that took me some time to learn.” ~  Rachel Grayczyk

#10

“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.” ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

#11

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do no pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks.” ~ Phillips Brooks

#12

“The storms will come and the winds will rise and the gusts will threaten to pull you from your roots. Let the winds come. Let them rage and know that you will not break in the breeze, you will bend. Bend. Always bend because you are made of more strength than you know, because you are better than the breaking.” ~ Tyler Knott Gregson

#13

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out from the depths.  These people have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.  Beautiful people do not just happen.” ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

#14

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” ~ Christopher Reeve

#15

“Life is an ever-flowing process and somewhere on the path some unpleasant things will pop up – it might leave a scar, but then life is flowing, and like running water, when it stops it grows stale.  Go bravely on, my friend, because each experience teaches us a lesson.  Keep blasting because life is such that sometimes it is nice and sometimes it is not.” ~ Bruce Lee