
04/07/2025
Somewhere along the line, we started worshipping the ones who could endure the most as if life is a Die Hard sequel.
The ones who push through, keep going, stay strong even when they’re dying inside.
We hand out medals for survival. We build entire cultures around grit, Angela Duckworth’s The Power of Passion and Perseverance has over 6 million views!
But has anyone stopped to ask what it’s costing us?
What happens when we raise generation after generation of warriors, but never let them lay down their swords?
What happens when every hardship is seen as a test of strength, not a wound needing care?
What happens when the only story we admire is the comeback and not the pause or the grief?
We’ve become a world of calloused humans clapping for each other’s scars while ignoring the infections beneath them.
We normalize pain so well that we forget we weren’t built for this kind of war.
Humans were not designed to constantly “slay.”
We are soft-bodied creatures with nervous systems wired for connection, not constant combat.
We confuse emotional shutdown for strength. We confuse dissociation for grace under pressure.
We’ve been trained to admire the high-functioning wounded.
But that isn’t healing. That’s trauma conditioning.
Maybe the bravest thing now isn’t getting back up.
Maybe it’s saying: “I’m not okay. I need to sit down. And I don’t want to do this alone anymore.”
Not because we want to raise a generation of wimps and wussies but because the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.
Because compassion is not weakness and numbness is a horrible strategy.
Humans are not in need of resilience but rather, we are in need of repair.
And if any of this feels like your story and if you’ve mastered the art of functioning while quietly falling apart then my podcast, The Strong Pretender, was made for you.
It’s where we finally don’t need to be fierce unless it’s on a runway. But instead be brave enough to name what hurts and give ourselves the space needed to heal it.
One honest episode at a time.
🎙️ Available now wherever you listen.