Strength…what comes to mind when you hear that word?

Could you describe strength if you were asked?

 Could you describe strength if you were asked?

Most of us come up with broad generalizations we have heard or seen in order to define strength. Strength is a simple everyday word we use so often that we automatically think we know what it is. Yet when we put on a magnifying glass on, it becomes somewhat difficult to describe because it’s a subject that gets overlooked. Strength isn’t a special code that needs to be cracked, it's not a mystery but it sure has become one.

We are born with strength

Strength is fuel. We come in with strength already imbued in us. It propagates our existence.  We tend to focus on attributes of strength in order to describe it: disciple, grit, perseverance, and willpower. These are expressions of strength  and they are learnable but they are only a derivative of its original form.

It’s a characteristic that inherently arrived with us at birth. Strength is the foundation that all secondary characteristics like discipline, perseverance, grit, and willpower rely on to grow and sustain.  Think of a house built on dirt with no foundation, the walls may be built strong but without a foundation over time they lose their footing.  

Strength is one of the few human qualities that has no need to be taught, found, built, or created.

From birth we all have this gift, just as we are born with fingers, toes, two arms, and two legs.  Think about a child and their resilience. Children have the ability to undergo any situation.  They have dominance. They have a huge imagination that to them is the same as reality.  A child will tell you they want to live on the moon. We sit around and giggle at their creative little fantasies. However, for them this is so very real. It’s our own conditioning that has us think of this as a fantasy and not a possibility. They, in that moment, genuinely believe this is possible. As they should!  As cheesy as it sounds, strength is what real dreams are made of.