Food for thought: What is strength?

Without a doubt you have encountered a person, an experience in your life, a conversation in which
the word “strength” popped up. But what does it truly mean?
To anything and anyone all around us, it means something else. So be sure to understand the other
person’s perspective on this word.
For me, all my life, I never gave it a clear definition. And if I would, it would be somewhere
in the personality/character dimension, still not entirely well defined. My definition of it would start
to form around other adjectives in time. Yet I always sought it out externally, in other people. I
always wanted to find strong persons, and I did- whatever “strong” would mean at that time.
In me, I wouldn’t see it. It took time to finally be told that I had in me what I would look for in others.
Isn’t it funny? We look for traits and qualities in others that are most often in us. We just forget.
“But what is strength” you ask? Well, let me drop the insatiably famous line: it depends.
Yep, you heard it. It depends on the context, it depends on the person speaking about it, the views
upon it, the way you’ve been taught. Ultimately, it depends on the definition you choose.
Some see it physically. Strength could be an achievably, bodily thing- such as growing
muscles and being able to lift a bicycle with merely two fingers. Others see it mentally: they say
things such as “Can you mentally withstand such a tragedy in your life?”, “She is mentally stronger
and doesn’t have such complexities and midlife crisis”, “He can watch a horror movie and sleep like
a baby afterwards”, et cetera.
In the last category, there are those who see strength as a characteristic usually formed by
other personality traits or values. “Strength means integrity. It means honesty. It means standing
up for yourself or others. It means defending your truth- whatever your truth is”. Some people, the
more sensitive ones, can even tell you it’s in your energy field. It’s all around you. It’s in the way you
walk, the way you talk. And you can still be blind as a bat towards it until someone points it out to
you :)).
Whatever the case, whatever the definition, strength is within us and all around us. It is
reachable, attainable. Just make sure that you choose a clear definition for it so that others
understand your perspective. And always, always, always ask “what is strength to you?” when
talking to someone else. Surprisingly, easy words have different definitions for all of us. So don’t
end up fighting over something until you ask and see what the other is referring to.
P.S: This goes for all words. Have you ever seen a couple arguing and using words such as “I
don’t feel you love me”, “How can you say that? I invest so much love into you”, bla bla. This is
because their definition of “love” is different- and probably measured differently too. (Check The 5
love languages for more on that)