What Does It Takes To Be Strong?

What do you think it takes to be psychologicly strong? What is the perfect recipe of a perfect mental strength?
What is your definition of toughness

I'll take a shot. Don't feel concerned if you reconize yourself with my definition of ''weak''.

1.Will Power of Steel - The ability to accomplish everything you wish to. If you say you will do something, You WILL do it. And whenever you want something, you get it. That makes you a Doer, not a dreamer.

2.Bouncing Back Ability - Your wife quits you, your house gets on fire, you lose your job, your puppy dies. You suck it up and take on everything without looking back and whine about it. You're able to resist to any obstacle that life throws you. That's the most important factor.

3.Fast Healing - You don't take weeks,months or maybe even years to get over a failure. You recover very quickly from mistakes and don't feel depressed long enough about it.

4.Feel No Love - Love is Human's ultimate weakness. You're depending on someone, always compromising to keep your relationship healthy, forget your principles, ideas and desire just to satisfy someone else? That's my definition of pure weakness. Add the fact that you always get completly blinded and always following your heart over your head. That's a really really bad thing. Love is for the weaks.

5.Trust Nobody - If you're naive enough to believe you can trust someone enough to open yourself to them, you only deserve to be betrayed. There's nobody in this world worthy enough to be trusted. They say how much they need you and how much you are important to them, and whenever an obstacle come, they completly forget about you or backstab you when you're expecting it the less. Their trust is a bad joke. And people you've opened yourself to them will use your confidences against you to destroy you better in the future.

6.You're ALWAYS right. You're not a loser - You must always be right. And even if you know you're wrong, refuse to admit it. The other person will eventually lose hope and give up and you'll win. There's no place for people that can accept defeat or be proved wrong. You must become undefeatable in your mind and into other's.

7.Indestructible Self Confidence - Nobody can break you. NOBODY! You must be so sure of your knowledge,competences,etc. that there's NO WAY you can fail. Exemple, I'm not a good detective, I'm WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE. I'm not a smart guy, I'm one of the smartest guy that ever walked on Earth. It's not a matter of bragging or not, it's simply a way to build yourself a legendary self-esteem. And if somebody nags you. It doesn't do you anything! You're so superior to them that they can't hurt you because they're simply too stupid to exist.

8.Don't Get Overwhelmed By Emotions - That's another one of the ultimate human's weakness. You don't cry. You don't whine. You don't feel down. Somebody that get overwhelmed by emotion is somebody that can't control them. That's someone that can easily lose control. That's a very weak person.

9.Fearless - Very important. You're not afraid of anything. People will use your fears to easily destroy you. But if you're fearless, you won't have that problem. And remember, there's no such thing as ''Fear of being Afraid.'' It simply doesn't exist.


Thoses are I think the best ingredients of the perfect human being. Of course, my message might sound dark,cynical or whatever. It is what I think, that doesn't mean it's 100% right. But if you disagree, tell me what do you think it takes to be a Strong Person?

I can't agree with all of them. Some of these aren't 'perfect' for being strong. Some of these things could easily backfire on you and ending up hurting you or other people. In a sense, I'd say your almost describing an inhuman person. Few people could have this type of mental capacity or maintain it. I can't think of any suggestions off hand on how to improve it except for maybe perfect judgment. The ability to know when and how to make the right decision in the appropriate way or manner.

Well, to use that attribute, you would almost appear ignorant. Let's use your example of saying/believing "I'm not a good detective, I'm WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE!" If you truly aren't the greatest detective, than why do you ignore the fact and believe you are? Self esteem is great and all, but only within reason. If you truly aren't good at something, you should be receptive to that and try to make yourself better. But with an Indestructible Self Esteem, you will think people don't know any better. You'll appear rash and above the rest of humanity. Self esteem means that you respect yourself and find worth in yourself. That's perfectly fine. But being overly-confident can have drawbacks. Unless you have perfect knowledge to go with a perfect self esteem, then you would not do well to have an indestructible self esteem. You may be wrong, but never acknowledge it and therefore remain worse off.

I'll say that I didn't look carefully through the full list, but what I did see appeared flawed. A will power of steel would probably be a good thing no matter how you cut it. Although, again, I would say unless you have other superhuman attributes, it is rash to have a will power of steel. If you don't have the energy or time to complete something, you will only be hurting yourself eventually over time. You will be so focused on whatever it is that you lose sight of your human feebleness and eventually wear yourself out. Also, if you only focus on one thing, you will lose sight of the big picture and may not understand the implications of the actions. You'll be so focused, you'll fail to realize that what you are doing may not be the right thing. Yet you'll be doing it and finishing it anyway. For the most part, a will of steel would probably be better since many people never set out to finish what they start, but it can have draw backs.

I will say as I did above that many of these things require superhuman attributes in order to be flawless. Let me outline what else could be wrong with the other things you listed.

I'm pleased to see I can have a real conversation with someone.

@Duke
In every of my arguements there's a double sense, a second degree you have to deduce.
For exemple, when I speak about Self Esteem. In your mind, convince yourself you're the greatest. But be logical, it's not really possible to be the greatest in the world. However, with a such high confidence, you'll know that you're indeed very very very good at something without being the best. If I take the exemple of the Detective back. I call myself World's Greatest Detective, but I know I'm not the best of all. However, it gets me to know I'm extraordinary in that domain and rare are thoses who can match my strength.

Or when I say You Must Always Be Right. It's similar of being stubborn. You don't let anyone win. And even if you've been clearly defeated, you don't let that happen. There's always a way to strike back. I understand truth might be important for you and many but remember this saying:

-Truth or Happiness. Never both.

You cannot be satisfied and living in truth at the same time. It's not possible. If you're happy because you've won an arguement, it's because it has some lie within it. If you want to have the whole truth, you cannot be happy. If you feel victorious over an argument, there MUST be some lie behind it. Truth is important, but very relative in that case. Espiceally when the point of life is to enjoy it. You don't have time to feel sad because of truth.

@Ranging
I agree. If you're a strong person, it's a duty to help weakers than you to become as strong as you. And they can help you to improve yourself at places where they are very strong. It helps both persons.

Not sure I quite get you. You say that you know you aren't the best, yet you believe it anyway. Well, it can't be both. It's one or the other. You can be good at something and then believe in how good you are at whatever it is and that would be fine. But, to know you aren't the best yet think you are is irrational. Self esteem is simply boils down to being okay with your own strengths. In a sense, you could be the worse detective in the world, yet be okay with your ability. That is self esteem. What you describe is more aptly defined as being pompous, or "Affectedly and irritatingly grand, solemn, or self-important." You believe you are better than everyone else, and you might be. But who wants to listen to someone who's essentially an ***? Nobody. Self esteem is about acknowledging your abilities and being okay with what you can do, not about believing you can be something greater than you are.

The statement "Truth or happiness. Never both" is bs. I just can't see how you could believe it. You can be satisfied with living in the truth. The truth can be disheartening, but more often than not, it should make you happy, too. If anything, you should notice that a mindset like that is implying. More often than not, if truth makes us unhappy, it's because we think its better to be happy than truthful. For example, say you are an alcoholic. You are very happy in your lifestyle, yet the truth of the matter is that alcohol is only a temporary, fleeting happiness. Of course this makes you sad and the truth hurts, but because you know this and can act on it, you will be a better person in the long run. You may give up drinking, live a longer life, and know that you are making a better use of it by living without alcohol and the false happiness it brings. False or ignorant happiness is not "true" happiness. True happiness comes from knowing the truth and living according to it.

And of course, no one wants to be wrong. But when you know or realize you are wrong, you should be willing to give up your flawed view and accept the correct view. Is it not irrational to defend something you know is wrong? If you believed killing people was ok in any circumstance and came to the realization it is not, would you still believe and fight for it? It is much weaker to continue defending a belief you know is wrong than to accept the correct belief when you know it is right. If you don't believe that, than I'm sorry. That is the truth.

Here I'm going to assume something about you. As far as I can tell, you are the kind of person who hates pain, hates sufferings, hates sadness, hates any of those things. And that's not a bad thing. But where you differ from other people is that you are quite perfectly ok ignoring the truth and ignoring your weaknesses in order to have a "happier" life. You don't believe there is happiness in truth, and life is about being happy as opposed to knowing the truth. If I had to guess, I'd say you are not a religious person. For that, these is not much of a remedy. Believing in something like Christianity or any religion takes faith. To believe in what you believe in takes faith of course, too. I guess the main thing we differ in is hope vs. despair. I tend to be more optimistic about things and you are more pessimistic. Since I haven't really won an argument here, I guess that means everything I said here was true, eh?

Hmm. I'd still say that's flawed. If you aren't the greatest, you won't get there by believe you are. It's a matter of doing, not believing, if you see what I mean. If you believe you are, you may reach a point where you stop trying to be better and just assume you are better. It would be like a high school hockey player believing he is the best as you say, but then he quits practicing and working out and soon, he loses his edge as a hockey player and gets left behind. It may not seem like it could happen, but it's a definitely possibility. In other words, don't kid yourself. You are who you are. Set a goal to be better and believe you will get better, not believe you are the best right now. That seems like a better mindset. Don't just set the bar high believing you are there already and that your body will catch up. Set the bar where it needs to be set and work it up slowly from there. Get what I mean?

As for the friend example here's what I would say. Most friendships are not developed on lies, but on genuine shared interests and mutual feelings. If you honestly don't like something about a person, why become their friend in the first place. Now, it's quite possible that later on something could be going south in a friendship without you knowing about it. It happens often. In that case, the friendship probably wasn't going to work from the start, but eh. Anyways, you get to that point where the truth comes out. Yes it sucks and yes it hurts, but think now. You found out how this person REALLY feels about you. You may cry for a bit, but eventually you come to the realization that this person was not a friend and is not a friend now. You will soon get over it and 1) be happy they aren't your friend anymore and 2) strive to make better friends in the future, assumptively leading to greater happiness as a result of the experience. As for me, I truly, 100% believe I am living truthfully, and I am happy. If I am truly living a happy and truthful life, then either 1) you are right, I am living a lie, and am not actually happy, only assuming I'm happy...or 2) I am right, am both living a life in the truth while being happy and am living to my full potential as a happy, healthy human being. From my view, it seems to be the latter. I am happier to know the truth than to be living or experiencing a lie.

As to right and wrong, I'm assuming you are saying that the strongest person has no moral compass, eg. no sense of right or wrong. I would agree that if you don't have a moral compass, it makes things a hell of a lot easier to do. But to live by a moral code and make the hard decisions is a mark of strength in my mind. Sure, it's easy to pick one way of doing things when your life is not guided by a sense of right or wrong. There's no brainwork to it. But to have conflict over a decision and try to work it out, that takes way more strength to manage. Granted, there is nothing wrong with standing up for what you believe in. There are times when you should stand up for your beliefs and doing so shows you are stronger as it usually means you are in a minority. But you are saying regardless of the situation, you should take a stand and never back down, regardless of if you are right or wrong and whether or not there is such thing as a right or wrong. And here is where I differ with you. I believe there is right and wrong. There is truth and untruth. There is black and white.

Let me phrase it this way. Is it easier to say something is right or wrong if you believe in and follow a moral code? No, it is not, since there is conflict between what you (the flesh) wants to do and what you (the soul, spirit, mind, logical, w/e you want to call it part of you) should do. When the logical side of you realizes that you are in the wrong, then you should be taking up the correct view. Yes, this means you must admit you were wrong, but how could that be a sign of weakness? Is it not rational to admit you were wrong when indeed you were. That's common sense, not weakness. It becomes strength when despite the fact that (and don't take this the wrong way) people like you, Iron, come along and say it is a weakness, you still admit you were wrong anyway. For if you accept the shame and realize it is only shameful in the eyes of onlookers such as you, Iron, and realize that most people in this world are alike and know how painful it is to admit you are wrong, then it indeed becomes a strength to take the "humbler" road and admit your wrongness. Indeed, you do believe humility is a weakness, but it is quite appropriate for humans to adopt it. If a millionaire is never humble, he is probably spiteful of the fact that he has such insecurities about himself and that he feels weak despite his mass amounts of wealth. To be humble is a weakness as most people are not willing to do it. You suggest that few people can accomplish such things as you have outlined above. If you indeed believe that, then you probably also believe that to be in a minority or a select few of such people is to be stronger, than is not the humble man stronger for appearing to be weak?

It's no easy burden to be humble. Is it not harder to say you are wrong than it is to have no sense of right and wrong and blindly stand for something that you don't even know is right or wrong. In fact, it doesn't matter if what you believe is right or wrong. It becomes more important just to take a stand on one side and stick to it, rather than if the issue is actually right or wrong. To you, it wouldn't matter if you were taking a stance on abortion or the taste of potato salad. To you, its about just taking a stand, not what you are actually standing for. So I ask: what does it matter that you stand for anything if you actually have nothing to stand for with good reason?

To come full circle, I believe you are a follower of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche had many similar views to what you are describing. I believe if you read him, you would find you are quite similar to him and his ideas. Nietzsche focused heavily on an idea of "will to power." If you have have the strongest will, you can wield the greatest power. You are what he would call, "the over man." His ideas on how each person has a different perspective also fit you well. You don't necessarily think I'm wrong, but you don't believe you are wrong either. All in all, you'd do well to read him and understand what his take on philosophy is. I personally never liked him that much, but he provides a different point of view in philosophy that is both challenging and testing. I feel I've done my best and yet we are still at odds. Yet it's been good to talk this through and clarify my beliefs on such matters.

Also, pardon my words as I get really dreamy/whimsical/archaic in my thoughts and use of language for no apparent reason. I guess to really talk about such things, you have to be in the mindset of a philosopher and beyond the thinking capacity of the average human being. Not saying I'm smarter than all of you, but talking about this subject doesn't just boil down to a squabble on the playground, but rather a complicated and complex constructive debate that ends with nobody changing their minds anyway.

Well there you have it. Not much more to say without repeating myself.

I would think it idiotic, too, to stop training, and yet people do it all the time.

Stealing is wrong, but stealing to live is different. Stealing is still wrong, but I think the issue at hand is preventing that stealing from ever taking place. Fix the problem before it becomes more complicated, if you know what I mean. Most problems can be fixed before they become worse.

Sadly, no man is invincible. Every man has his breaking point, whether forced or not. To deny you have no weakness is false and one day you will realize this (not to sound like a horoscope or anything stupid like that). Every man is broken, no man is perfect. The best we can do is recover from what has happened and move on.

And hat, as we say folks, is a rap. Nietzsche's philosophy and goals presuppose a lot of things about humans and human nature. I would say he was mostly false and we've pretty much already covered my reasons for thinking so. The world sometimes seems to work as the way he defined things, but not always, and if it is not always the case, then it can not explain everything and thus falls short in a full explanation. Hope you come to see it how I do one day. But if not, good luck at being an over man (or Übermensch as you want to be known).