Mental Toughness: Purpose

By: Dave Weidlich | Date: August 30, 2016 | Categories: encouragement

When I ask veteran college teachers and administrators to describe how college students have changed over the years, I often get an answer like this: “Today’s students are more accomplished than past generations, but they are also more emotionally fragile.”…

People are much stronger than they think they are when in pursuit of their telos, their purpose for living. As Nietzsche put it, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

If you really want people to be tough, make them idealistic for some cause, make them tender for some other person, make them committed to some worldview that puts today’s temporary pain in the context of a larger hope…

We live in an age when it’s considered sophisticated to be disenchanted. But people who are enchanted are the real tough cookies.

David Brooks