TOW: Strength

Since I work out a lot these days, I have been thinking lately about my body, and my diet, age, etc. All this working out has got me thinking about strength. It's hard to be strong...physically, mentally, or spiritually. I am currently working a lot on the physical and somewhat on the spiritual, and the mental strength I feel like I have under wraps. (That's what an MA gets you. Har har.)

Nietzsche called human strength will to power. Even more than the desire to live, strong and intellectual beings want to be powerful, and will risk their lives for more power. We become most fulfilled when we struggle to achieve power in our own lives, to control the circumstances that surround us. (In a more negative interpretation, this also means being able to control people around us. Don't read too much Nietzsche.) Every time we fight beyond the will to just survive, we are doing something right. Taking risks for positive benefit is integral to being human. Every time we let people and circumstance overshadow our sense of self, our 'will to exist and be powerful' we are weak.

Perhaps the most common mistake each of us makes is the idea that strength equals the inability to fail. Nietzsche was right about one thing--there are some people that are truly strong that sink with their own ships. Strength is the ability to prevent the possibility of failure from paralyzing us. Strong people don't actually succeed a lot. They usually just manage to succeed once or twice while other people are watching. And that's all it takes.

Strength resides in our ability to take risks and not fear failure, and to laugh in the face of failure as it approaches from afar. Strength is integrity in the face of fear. And often our dreams are built out of this intergrity.