Strength of mind. If you observe nature, you can be surprised every day. A duck is building a nest, a blade of grass is breaking through the asphalt, ants are scurrying around underfoot. Everyone is working at full capacity. This strength - fortitude - is an innate quality of living organisms . We must live, we must develop, we must improve our “anthill” - this is the motto of all nature. Or almost all of it.
Man, you see, is a “biosocial” being, the crown of the universe. We can lie around and scroll through the news instead of doing productive work. In modern society we do not have a spark that pushes us towards development. We become weak, our body overpowers us.
For a normal person, this goes against conscience (spirit, nature), so depression occurs and self-esteem decreases. We are losing control over life, we are controlled by desires, fashion and simply stronger people.
To regain power and become the sole owner of your life, in this article we will look at 4 areas of activity. You will learn how to develop steely fortitude and “squeeze” maximum results out of it.
Pain
Strength is generated only through pain . In the gym, in life – it doesn’t matter. It’s as if you are fighting with yourself, forcing yourself to do something or resist. This is a standard growth indicator that all athletes strive for. They understand that pain is a sieve through which the weak are eliminated and the strong rise.
Pain appears due to the fault of the brain. It is difficult for him to break an ingrained habit and choose the difficult path instead of the easy one. This causes dissonance, a state of reluctance and apathy.
accept this state like a champion and learn to use it for development. Below we will look at 3 ways to cause and overcome pain in yourself.
1 Act without sparing yourself
When you feel sorry for yourself, you reinforce the habit of giving up. Your body acquires power, you indulge its desires. The next time you have a choice - to do or not to do - you will be guided by past behavior. This means that your piggy bank will gradually be replenished with negative experiences and excuses. The feeling of guilt will dull accordingly, you will allow yourself to be a rag and will not give your best.
- “Okay, I’m not ready yet...”
- “Oh, weakling, it didn’t work out again. Okay, this is all because of......"
- “It’s okay, it’ll work out next time”
Don't feel sorry for yourself, fight habits. Love the process of overcoming. The more often you act in accordance with your inner voice (conscience, soul), the more you develop fortitude. Remember that you are only as happy with yourself as you can control your life.
2 Run into problems
Instead of a shameful and negative experience, it is better to put your victories . You can overcome habits and develop as much as possible, or you can artificially create discomfort. This way you will quickly start moving and develop arguments to increase your self-esteem.
If you have accumulated anger and no longer have the strength to tolerate your weaknesses, this is the ideal way to release energy. Place yourself in extreme conditions, start doing at least something. As soon as you move, strength will come, and the desire to live and develop will return.
You can try for example:
- Start with the little things. Watch your posture, stop “carrying pieces,” and clean up your speech.
- Continue with average. Read 4 books in a month (1 per week), go to the gym for six months, meet ten people.
- Extreme. Sit on a fast, get up at 6 am, run 3 km every evening, open your own business.
After such feats, you will be able to focus on your victories . They will give you the confidence to further develop your fortitude.
3 Start over with a clean slate
Sometimes you just don't have the courage to take a decisive step. You seem to understand the destructiveness of the problem, but any endeavors quickly end. Little energy, little torque to get moving.
In such cases, you need to make a small revolution with yourself. Ruthlessly break down everything old and start building something new in its place. In this way, you will instantly burst into real life and feel the pleasant pain of change.
If you do it conscientiously, it will be painful and difficult. But there are a number of advantages:
- Massiveness of changes
- Instant release of energy and anger towards yourself
- Feeling full of life
- Increasing confidence in your abilities
- Feeding changes from each other (for example, running in the morning - getting up at 6:00)
Don't wait for the moment , live here and now, as the Pepsi advertisement says. Your life is not a rehearsal for something important, so don’t be afraid to change and release your reserves of strength. It is at such moments that strength of spirit and strength of character are trained.
Films about fortitude
When there is no one around in difficult moments of trials, you can watch films about willpower and spirit, and this will be an excellent motivation to move on in life and not lose heart, but to nurture it. The heroes of these films know from their own experience what fortitude is:
- " Pollyanna / Pollyanna
". This girl Polianna faced a lot of challenges. But her loving heart and fortitude melted the hearts of the small town and its callous inhabitants. - " Three Days to Escape / The Next Three Days
" His wife is guilty of murder, but he does not believe it and tries in every possible way to get her out of prison. A film about the power of love and fortitude in the face of vicissitudes of fate. - " Favourite/Seabiscuit
". In this drama there are victories and defeats, love of life and despair, and the horse Sukhari, homely and not stately, an extension of his master, together they are one powerful force of spirit. The film helps you feel the taste of life again when it’s bad and hard. - " Soul Surfer
". This is the true story of the famous American surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm due to a shark attack while training. But Bethany did not give in to the circumstances and continued training and participating in competitions. - " Wild
". True stories always motivate, this wonderful film is based on the biography of Cheryl Strayed, an American writer and screenwriter. During a difficult period in her life, Sharyl decides to go on a difficult journey on foot and return a different person.
Goals
To develop fortitude, you must have a motive . Without a strong reason, you will use only willpower, at some point you will break down and reproach yourself more than before. Therefore, the first priority will be to set goals.
We hear about this from every word, but we write them reluctantly. A piece of paper with goals lies in some nightstand for months and forgets what its owner looks like. But this is bad: we are like an airplane that flies as long as there is kerosene, and does not know its direction. Someday the kerosene (motivation) will run out and it will fall down.
At least now write again why you need all the changes . This small investment of time will help you “lock in” the desired result so that there is no opportunity to slip away. When you write down what you want, you will receive documented evidence of your real priorities. It will “tell” how to direct events so as not to succumb to them as before.
Why is all this needed?
The development of a person’s will necessarily forces him to pay attention to certain energy-consuming conditions. Having discovered the emergence of self-pity due to deprivation or fatigue, it is easy to notice how much time and effort is spent on this feeling. By replacing it with satisfaction from fulfilling a decision, a person increases self-esteem.
Trying to avoid unpleasant actions, it is impossible to solve the problem. In some cases, it can get worse (for example, a bad tooth). But cultivating the will, as a victory over one’s own fears, allows one to carry out these actions without much strain, solve the existing problem and enjoy the result.
Often a feeling of pride and personal exclusivity interferes with open communication. Developed fortitude, which makes it possible to adequately evaluate others, allows you to adequately relate to both their strength and their weaknesses. As a result, a strong personality gains the ability to constantly remain in a calm and confident state, without blaming others for their own failures and miscalculations. But these are precisely the traits that are characteristic of a successful individual who knows how to achieve success.
Internal mood
Strength of spirit is an internal state. If earlier we looked at how to develop it through outside intervention, now we will look at how to synthesize it spiritually. The connection between external and internal influences will quadratically strengthen our inner core.
1 Principles
You don't have to appear super-confident, try to please everyone and be a leader. It is enough to have a firm position in life. When you act in accordance with it, you feel your “backbone”, the presence of character.
To be independent and like yourself you need:
- Be able to say NO (Why should you be afraid of another person’s judgment? Why should you care about his opinion?)
- Be able to refuse
- Be able to defend your positions if they are correct
- Be able to resist the leaders - the “authorities” of your environment
- Be able to take responsibility
- Stick to your views, don’t change your point of view with the breeze
To develop a firm position in life, you need to find your principles. To do this, you need to dig into your head and understand what you would like to do always and what you would never want to do . You can also analyze current behavior and take a couple of examples from there. For example, for me it's:
- I strive to achieve my goal with all my might.
- I don’t get lost or embarrassed in front of others
- I don't touch if they don't touch me
- I don’t make fun of friends to gain another person’s authority.
- Other
Find your principles for yourself. They will become a framework for your behavior, a guide for your decisions. They will help you gain understanding of yourself, thereby strengthening your fortitude.
2 Cleansing
Nothing is worthy of your worries. No fear, no emotion should oppress your life. Today you are alive - tomorrow you are not, all this is empty.
While you live, you must give yourself to the fullest, because for infinity it makes no difference whether you die in a day or in 1000 years. Everything will be forgotten, everything will go nowhere. Compared to the Universe, your fear is a small thing, it will not change anything and will not contribute anything. You alone amuse yourself with it at the everyday level, when so many amazing and beautiful things are happening around you.
Get rid of all grievances, forgive, forget about the past. Become a new person who lets go of all the petty issues. Of course, in life it won’t turn out as beautiful as in the text, but at least ease your soul a little . After all, what is inside you will be the material for building strength.
3 Material for construction
As history shows, strength must be based on goodness . All sorts of Hitlers and Mussolinis were convinced of this by their own example. Their fascism could not last long enough and sank into oblivion.
It's the same in our lives. You must become a kind, pleasant and positive person, only then can you fully develop fortitude. Those around you will feel your warmth and dedication and this will help you grow faster. By filling yourself with love for the world, you will provide yourself with the building blocks of a powerful and pleasant character.
A small disclaimer: you don’t have to be gentle to be kind. Be strict, don't let others take advantage of your kindness. Let them know that you know how to give, but only of your own free will.
4 Live life to the fullest
Live the way they show in the movies. Position yourself like superman. Give it your all now.
A weak person locks himself in his closet and lives according to a schedule, when a strong-willed person gives everything he has to achieve results. If there is a Ferrari in the world, then you need to ride it. If there is Paris, then you need to visit it. You were born into this world with a 1 in 400,000,000,000,000,000 chance, and if there is something worthwhile here, you should try it.
When you work at full capacity, self-belief, confidence, and success come. The whole body is excited by the busy rhythm of life, character is tempered by endless problems, and strength of spirit increases from their solutions. Feed your soul with action and strength will come as a side effect.
To become a fully-living person you need:
- Never give up
- Work to the maximum everywhere (training, work)
- Don't be afraid of risk
- Concentrate on your desires, do not look or listen to others
- Know what you want
- Never be afraid of anything
- Find a source of energy - books, a loved one, authority
Act as if you have already gained mental strength. Don’t try to develop it - it takes a long time, try to immediately plunge into the transformation. By changing something today, you will see results faster. Of the 100 people who read the article, be the one who doesn’t just waste time reading, but radically changes their life.
Books about fortitude
They exude confidence and inflexibility, they have gone through many tests and emerged from them with honor, and they know that only through obstacles and overcoming oneself does the strength of the human spirit grow, they are the heroes of books that have become bestsellers. What is power and fortitude in the books of famous writers:
- “ Wolfhound
” by M. Semenov. A series of books about a man nicknamed Wolfhound, he is a warrior who has nothing to lose, because all his relatives were destroyed. He will pass through worlds, time, space, hard labor and wars, and this will only strengthen his fortitude. - “ Me Before You
” by J. Moyes. The main characters are the girl Lou Clark, who was left without work, and he is Will, a young guy who made the most of life and suddenly became disabled. Lou gets a job as a nurse for Will, but he is sarcastic and constantly makes fun of the girl. But Lou does not despair and strives to arrange Will’s life so that he stops feeling outside of active life. They are both strong-willed individuals, both are beautiful and their love is the most beautiful thing that could happen to them, even if only for a short time. - " You changed my life
". A. Sellu. The acclaimed film “1+1” was based on this book. Sometimes fate brings together people who seem to be so different and all that remains is to throw up your hands “for what?” Both heroes will learn a lot from each other and both will grow spiritually. - " Spark of Life
". EM. Remarque. War is the most cruel test of life; it squeezes a person into circumstances where the choice is negligible, and the person is completely vulnerable. But even under these conditions, a person learns, passes tests, and his fortitude grows stronger. - “ Notes on Napkins
” by G. Callahan. True strength of spirit manifests itself in difficult times for a person. This book is a true story in which the author writes about himself and his family. Garth lived the normal life of an average American until he learned that he had cancer. And every day became like his last. The diagnosis did not break him and several years have passed, and Garth continues to make every day of his life and the lives of his loved ones unforgettable.
No. 3. Group events
Group interaction - all kinds of trips and hikes. Usually there is some idea or a specific event behind them: an anniversary, a strategy, a celebration, and so on. At such events, people begin to communicate more, which creates friendship and love for the company. This is motivating because employees see that they are cared for. And thanks to this, they show more creativity in their work.
When to organize corporate events
Of course, it is important not to overdo it so that collective events are perceived adequately. The rule here is simple: such activities should be a reward for general merit. We fulfilled the plan 110% - we are all going to the mountains, we successfully implemented the strategy for the year - we are going on vacation to Sochi. As a reward for the efforts of the entire team, events work well.
No. 6. The face of the company
The method has become widespread with the growing popularity of social networks. This is an opportunity to speak on behalf of the company and become a public figure. Of course, not all people like attention and popularity, but many will be motivated by such trust in the company.
Entrepreneurs are often afraid to make a star out of an employee, because he might leave! But the company will not lose too much, since this person has always been a representative of the company, talking about products and new products. Besides, if a person likes this state of affairs, there is no reason to leave. He will continue this activity with pleasure for himself and with great benefit for you.
No. 4. Training
These are various conferences and external training, in which the company pays the best specialists to participate. Intelligent training makes an employee stronger, more abilities, and more creativity.
I once trained my team in the area of personal styling. It would seem, what does this have to do with work, management and management? But after attending this training, the employees not only began to look better, but also felt more confident. When a person becomes stronger in one area, he becomes more productive in other areas.
No. 5. Career
The most powerful way to motivate! When a new employee comes to you, you must describe his career with great prospects. If he sees that you want to develop him into a manager, a deputy director, then a director, this becomes his goal, his intention.
Yes, maybe not 100%, but the employee has much more desire and dynamics to learn something new, to bring results to the company, because his career depends on this. The employee may not make it to the very top, but if you don't offer him a career in the first place, he won't have any aspirations. The company will not benefit from such a team member.
No. 2. Symbols
Here we are talking about external designations: medals, badges, signs on office doors. People love it, bright symbols have meaning to them. I think you have noticed that some are even ready to fight and compete for them.
Error
The only mistake is to give symbols in advance. You shouldn’t call an ordinary manager a vice president, hoping that this will motivate him. If it has not yet proven itself and has not produced results, do not rush. Symbols and titles must be deserved. Reward them only to those who have shown results. Only in this case will they be valued and motivate staff.
