keep on plodding

Strength is the one virtue that makes all other virtues possible.

You may disagree, but listen to me first; what does "strength" even mean? We use this word in so many contexts - obvious ones such as the strength of a structure, the strength of a man's muscle - and less obvious ones, like the strength of a man's integrity, the strength of a man's skills.

There are probably many definitions of strength, but this one I've found, I like the best.

There is a wonderful board game called Go. While I was playing a game of Go, I noticed that I was spreading stones across the board faster than my opponent, who took his time to build a strong Dragon - a tight arrangement of stones that could not be destroyed. Eventually, my weak pockets of stones that covered the board had to answer to the Dragon, and couldn't stand against it. Before the game was finished, I had already lost.

My opponent's strength was that he could influence me to change my actions, and this stemmed from his resilience.

This is the meaning of strength. To be unmovable by others, thus allowing you to move them.

For example, in the strength of your integrity, you should not be moved by the world's temptations, thus moving others to follow you. If you can resist the urge to eat that chocolate, your strength motivates others to not eat that chocolate as well. If you can't resist, there's no way you can convince other people to not resist - that's hypocrisy!

It is very important to note that to be strong, you are both unmovable and you can move others.
So if you completely believe that there is a flying spaghetti monster in my room but can't convince anyone else that it's there, that's weak. Sure, you're unmovable, but you can't move anyone else. If you're a boxer with a great knockout punches, but cannot even take a single jab from an opponent, you're weak. You can move others, but you're not unmovable.



Strength: Like a mountain. It never moves for anyone, yet people all over the world flock to try and beat it.