Modern Romanticism

Strength and weakness. Knowing your limits. It’s not to say that an individual should not be encouraged from reaching further. But to know where one is, at their current time in their own life, means that whatever’s being reached for cannot be instantaneously received. Any attitude of impatience seeks to bypass where does strength and weakness lie. It would ignore such notions, as this may even be seen as an actual admittance of one’s weakness.

One might not have received what it is they are working towards, as patience ought to calm the individual who is doing more than they are able. There is such a thing as burnout, because one has reached their limit. To think of this as similar to what a weightlifter experiences wouldn’t reveal much difference at all. A weightlifter ought to also know their limits. For whatever their current level of physical strength is able to lift, the weightlifter should recognize that there is always a path ahead filled with the opportunity to gain further strength. Whether physical or mental, limits are there, even if with the latter it is less visible.

Mental limits are indeed similar to physical ones, while its lessened visibility can come clearer into view the more one begins to accept their presence. Living life for its struggles, surviving by whatever means, and as some trials in one’s existence enter in by accident, they still are meant to test how much a person can endure. Both strength and weakness are revealed by how much a person is able to tolerate. In some circumstances, a person is able to handle a life crisis on their own. In other circumstances, a person is forced to lean on additional strength. Leaning on other people is like having a situation where a person is trapped under a car. One knows that their physical strength, alone, is not sufficient to lift the vehicle, making them beckon other people around to aid in the task.

After the passing of a crisis, a person’s strength is given the opportunity to increase, whether that’s of a mental or a physical kind. When the crisis is “over”, in the sense that there’s no more to be done or there’s nothing left to change, lessons are there to be learned on the path to maybe doing things differently should a similar crisis ever come up. One now knows that the future is a moldable thing, not the past. It’s the same with a person’s physical exertion or “crisis”, as the toll taken upon their body can increase physical strength the next time they might willingly undertake a task to lift a barbell or a pair of dumbbells. The body rests, enters a recovery phase, and in the process of doing so, it gains muscle mass. The same thing does, or should, happen within a person’s mind. Whatever life crisis exerted their mind to its limit, when its events are concluded, only greater strength awaits on the other side whenever their life finds a different struggle to tackle.

Crisis reveals character during its events, while the building of character is done after the crisis has concluded. Knowing one’s limits is important to understanding that if one doesn’t know their limits, they are bound to see their productivity substantially decrease. One’s strength for productivity is intended to increase during the recovery or resting process, allowing them to conquer a greater “weight”, either being a mental or a physical one.