Episode 44: How to Handle Weakness and Become Strong, Flexible, and Resilient

Welcome to 2024! If you have never done one, or stuck to one, or realized one, make a resolution for yourself this year, starting today.  Resolutions are about setting our sights higher, dreaming bigger, and moving toward those dreams and goals one step at a time. 

If you can conceive of a reality different from the one you are currently experiencing, and if you can believe in it, long enough and strong enough, that it is actually a possibility – no, an inevitability – for you, where you are, as you are, right now, then you can achieve it, and ultimately you will receive it.  What can you conceive of for 2024?

In Episode 44 of “Warrior: The Art of War for Life” we discuss the fifth and final of Sunzi’s five butt-kicking boot camp strategies to become battle-ready for life: “Handling Weakness and Becoming Strong, Flexible, and Resilient.”

In discussing the concept of weakness, we unpacked the character ruo4 弱, meaning fragile, delicate, or weak.  The character depicts a pair of bird wings — extremely delicate and fragile things and yet with proper care, they can carry a bird to great heights and distances. 

This led us to the allegorical fable of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by American author Richard Bach. Jonathan, bored with his meaningless life and his constrained role in the squabble of seagulls that he lives in, wants to fly – not just short hops here and there for scraps of food on the shoreline.  No, he wants to soar high up into the air, he wants to ride the currents and feel the wind beneath his wings.  After much reviling from his fellow ‘guls and many failures and crashes on his part, Jonathan ultimately achieves his goal and sets an example of what is possible – an elevated life.

Next, we discussed a line in the chorus of the 1985 #1 U.S. hit “Broken Wings” by Mr. Mister, inspired by Lebanese poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran’s 1912 novel The Broken Wings: “Take these broken wings and learn to fly again, learn to live so free.”

Then, we discussed highlights from Marcus “Elevation” Taylor’s “Rise of the Underdog” speech about the importance of healing from our brokenness so that we can move forward in our lives.

Sunzi’s alludes to three characteristics of a bow as an example of self-empowerment: strength, flexibility, and resilience. We discussed the etymology of the character qiang2 強, which means strong or mighty.  The character is comprised of a taut longbow 弓 on the left beside a serpent on the right 𧈧.  Together, they convey the sense of the power or strength of a taut bow or a coiled snake ready to strike.

Soundtrack by ICVRUS