What is your strength?

I was reading a post by a friend of mine today, “I am stronger than I look” she posted. Those of you who know her, know who I am talking about. She is a bit of an icon where I live, a person worth looking up to. She talks about persistence as her strength (I think it is a superpower). I can be persistent as well, I think to be an artist you need to have that power.

Another power I have is a positive outlook. I can always look for the bright side. I call it my “Mary Sunshine outlook”. No matter what, I can turn the perspective on it’s head and see some good in anything. I’m pretty sure I get that from my mother. She can be a bit of a Pollyanna and has always found the good in any situation. With her life, it has been a bit of challenge at times but she has always come through in the clutch.

Here I am on the other side of the hill in life and sometimes it is a bit of challenge to find that “MSO” of my day. I keep trying and it does help. I have chronic back aches at this point in life and I am currently working on finding solutions for my problems. I have to keep looking for the “MSO” and knowing that there is always something else to try.

Another strength I have is my friends, at my age; they seem to be better and more reliable. When I was younger, they were all of the male persuasion and now I have more women friends than men. Maybe it is because women live longer, I don’t know. I am just grateful to have any friends at all. I have created a phone tree of them so that in times of need, I can go down them and call until one of them answers to help me find my emotional feet again. I hope they put me on their own phone trees, I like to return the favor.

When I was younger, I thought of strength as a physical thing (thus the chronic back aches now) and didn’t understand that it was more than the ability to lift and move stuff. As we age, we hit a point where we loose our sense of physical power and actually feel powerless. Our society calls it a midlife crisis and everyone goes through it differently. Some get new spouses and fast cars, others get degrees and new careers; I ate a car dealership gm for lunch. It is a point in our lives where we end up understanding the true meaning of power and self worth (hopefully).

Look, the point is; at every time in your life you have an ability to overcome and the sooner you find it, the farther you will go. Make a list of what you think your assets are be they tangible or intangible, and give yourself a moment to realize that you have value as a person. You can rescue yourself and that you can stand on your own two feet. If you don’t feel like you can, now is the time to figure out how you might be able to. It never hurts to assess yourself, you are stronger than you realize.