day no. 17.128: smooth men and smooth sailing

“When the seas are smooth and the waves are placid, even girly men will sail.” — Joe Rigney, Leadership and Emotional Sabotage

It takes no masculinity to sail on smooth waters. Anyone can do that. Smooth men can take to the smooth seas. When good men provide good times, soft men can skate, but if and when the hard times come, the smooth men slip and fall. They do not have sea legs or any muscle memory of surviving choppy waters to fall back on. They are untested so when the test comes, they fail.

"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” — Norman Schwarzkopf

In a good environment, men will need to create artificial adversities in order to stay trim for the real adversities that will inevitably come. If a man does not make some things harder on purpose, he will find out that hard things are much harder by accident. 

Proverbs 24:10

If you faint in the day of adversity, 

your strength is small.

So, lift weights, read books, compose essays, etc... Make things harder sometimes in order to keep your courage from atrophying into something that resembles the structural integrity of a bag of soup.