Character & Mental Toughness- easy and popular wrong, or difficult and unpopular right?
It’s not a matter of knowing the difference between right and wrong. Most people know that difference in every situation they find themselves in. The difference is really whether you have the mental toughness to do the right thing, the character thing, when everyone, including you, wants to do the wrong thing.
Will you search for the justification that excuses your taking the wrong turn or dig deep and find the mental toughness to stay on, or get on, the path of good character?
Everything I write, everything I share, is in preparation for that moment. The moment when you do not feel like studying or lifting; the moment when you have to decide to blow off practice or suit up; the moment when you are tired, bored or in pain and you can quit or press forward; the moment when the world needs you to step in when someone is getting picked on and it’s easier to ignore the trouble; the moment when you can have one more or drive home safely; the moment when you face the more talented and yet can still find a way to win.
I coach for that moment. I teach for that moment.
These are the moments that will define you (graduate/ dropout, honor roll/average, champion/quitter, good citizen/convict). It is in these moments when championships are won and lost. It is in these moments when lives are won or lost. It is in these moments when respect, most importantly self-respect, is won or lost.
It is these moments when your character and mental toughness are the only thing preventing you from making the wrong decision. Particularly when the wrong thing is easier, which is most often the case.
The more character and mental toughness you have, stored up in your bones, reinforced by past decisions made correctly, the stronger your habit to take the right action, maybe without even thinking about it. Without character and mental toughness, you will just do what is easy for you, and that might cost you and others. The right decision today will help you make the right decision later in life in a defining moment when the stakes might be far higher.
Below are quotes about doing the right thing, especially when most people are trying to get you to do the wrong thing; say when you are on a jury with 11 other people who do not share your opinion, or you are faced with skipping out on commitments to join in the fun. If you lack the mental toughness to avoid wrong in the little things, you will not have the mental toughness when the bigger decisions need to be made.
Thank you for showing me that sometimes you have to forgo doing what’s popular in order to do what’s right.- Mo’Nique , 2010 Best Supporting Actress in her Oscar acceptance speech.
What’s right isn’t always popular. What’s popular isn’t always right.- Howard Cosell
Are right and wrong convertible terms, dependent upon popular opinion?- William Lloyd Garrison
I wish for you the courage to be unpopular.-Charlton Heston
The courage in journalism is sticking up for the unpopular, not the popular. -Geraldo Rivera
The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul. -Emma Goldman
The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. -Margaret Chase Smith
There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader. -Rudy Giuliani
Follow the crowd and you will never be followed by a crowd. -Unknown
Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it’s what you believe, and the heck with everybody.- Justin Cronin
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