Kiado-Ryu Karate



Sep 19, 2022 - Feature of the Week

Tough Times? So Get Tougher

These are tough times, right? So what’s the answer? It’s simple. Get tougher.

Life is not complicated. We exist in a bi-polar universe. Therefore, there will always be good times and bad times. There is day and there is night; hot and cold, wet and dry, winter and summer; fall and spring, etc. Wisdom necessitates that we understand this universal principle and plan accordingly—emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually.

One of the noticeable things about the environment of present-day earth is that it is obviously going through tough times. There are no pills, magic words, potions or fairy dust that will make everything better. Sometimes—and this is one of those times—the only solution is that we simply have to get tougher and be tougher than the tough times we’re transiting.

So how do we get tougher if we’re not used to being “tough?” Answer: we gird up our loins, clench our teeth, stiffen our resolve, and move ahead with courage and determination. What we do not do is pretend everything is going to be all right. It won’t be all right unless we take action and make it right, which we must do to survive. We cannot sit around waiting for someone else to solve our problems or some Cavalry troop to come galloping in on their mighty steeds to save us. No. We are our own Cavalry. We must solve our own problems. After all, this is our life and it is our responsibility; not someone else’s responsibility. Such is reality.

Wisdom also dictates that we educate our children about this duality-based world and how to be tough so they can make proper adjustments to their lives, especially as they get older and have children. Then the children, having learned to be competent and tough, can teach their children to do the same and, thus, the attribute of “toughness” continues in perpetuity.

It’s important to remember, however, that tough times have benefits, one of which is learning how to be tough, courageous, resilient, strong, determined, discipline, controlled. These characteristics have sadly been waning and weakening for a long time, especially in America. People, en masse, have gotten soft and weak. Generally, life has been good in contrast to what we’re experiencing now, but that was then. Now is now, and we must learn to live in the “now” to solve our problems. The past is gone. It’s not coming back. The clarion call of today’s world is “Be Tough.”

Stop and think for a moment about those brave and courageous Englishmen who jumped on a wooden boat and sailed to a land and environment they knew nothing about, i.e., America, in order to flee the tyranny of King George III and be free. Many died in the process, but look what they developed—the greatest country in the history of the world. Those people were tough, strong, determined, courageous. They never relied on someone else for their survival. They didn’t complain, whimper, wail or cry. They didn’t look to some government to take care of them and make life easy. They took care of themselves. They knew that the cost of freedom and liberty—which they wanted—came at a price, sometimes the ultimate price, but they were willing to pay it. They were tough, very tough individuals—a direct contrast to much of the world’s population today.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” It’s an appropriate statement to live by, especially in today’s environment. It is something, not only to remember, but to emulate.

And then there is the following great quote from Sir Winston Churchill—one of the greatest leaders in world history, without whom Great Britain might not have survived WWII.

It you’re going through hell, keep going!

So … keep going! Be tough! Be strong! Be valiant! Be determined! Be courageous! The glory of life is in the “over coming” of adversity and hard times, not in acquiescence to them.