Have you ever heard the expression โWhen the going gets tough, the tough get goingโ?
I donโt know how old that saying is, but Iโve heard it many times throughout my life. And every time it makes me pause and reflect.
What would I do if things ever got tough? Would I give myself a lecture and do whatever had to be done? Would I give up?
I hope I would push on.
But the truth is, only in times of despair and need do we learn and witness the strength and fire that we have inside. But Iโm sure many will notice there are a whole lot of people in this world who have the exact opposite attitude. They will just lie back on the sofa and hope someone else will solve their problems.
And granted, there are people who can do no more than that.
And then there are the people who probably should be lying on the sofa, but they are tough. They have a strength of character that would never allow them to cave when things get difficult. They just become more determined that whatever it takes, they will face and overcome the challenges in front of them.
Some would call this willpower. Or determination. Or even self-control.
PositivePsychology defines willpower this way:
โAt the core of willpower is the ability to resist short-term temptations and desires in order to achieve long-term goals.โ
And the American Psychological Association calls it this:
โThe conscious, effortful regulation of the self, by the self.โ
Seeing people that push on despite the odds stacked against them is humbling.
One such example of someone who exhibits this willpower is Larry, a delivery driver in Utah.
And Larryโs strength, his proof that the tough get going when things get tough, made an impression on one woman in particular as well as his community.
As many of us are doing these days, Jennifer Weiss of Weber County, who Fox News calls a Good Samaritan, had done her grocery shopping online. Little did she know what would happen when that order was delivered
When talking to ABC4 News, she admitted,
โIt made me kind of feel guilty, to have someone else deliver stuff, just cuzโ I didnโt want to go to the store.โ
What made her feel guilty?
Watching her grocery store delivery unfold via her doorbell camera.
When her small grocery order from Walmart arrived, it was delivered by an elderly gentleman who clearly had problems getting up and down her front steps.
Yet despite his mobility issues, she noticed that he still took extreme care of her packages. Which in itself is something of a rarity. How many of us have received packages from healthy young people who just heaved them at our porches with no care for what was inside at all?
While speaking with ABC4, she says she,
โ[started wondering] who he was, and what his situation was, why he was doing deliveries. If he was going to continues doing deliveries when snow starts falling and stairs and driveways are icy.โ
All of this motivated her to find out who this man was.
โI had a few friends who said he shouldnโt have to be delivering, what if we all pitched in and gave him a big tip,โ she said.
She eventually shared a post on the Ogden, Utah Facebook page, asking for help.
Not long after she found out who he was when one of his relatives saw the post and contacted her.
Larry, who is a veteran, tells ABC4,
โI had a stroke in June, so I was just making some extra money cuzโ our swamp cooler blew off our roof. We have a big hole, I got it taped up, needed some extra money to fix that.โ
This is an example of what we talked about above. Willpower. Strength of character.
Despite recently suffering from a stroke, Larry needed something done. And he needed money to do it. So he got out there and got a job.
Thanks to the efforts of Weiss, the Weber County community wanted to help too.
โPosted his Venmo information, and I think that the donations just started coming in like crazy,โ she said.
And according to Larry,
โIt just blew up like crazy, thereโs so many nice people around here.โ
So nice that he no longer has to deliver, and he has the money to do the repairs he needed to be done.
And Larry has at least one other character trait we all should have. Despite his own situation, he was more concerned about others. Heโs even sharing the donations he has received with them.
Putting the donations to use.
With regards to the money he was receiving, he said,
โAnd I was just trying to get them to donate to the food banks and toys for tots or something, instead of giving me money.โ
Weiss added.
โIt may seem so small, it may seem like it couldnโt amount to much, but you just never know when it could cause a snowball effect, a huge chain reaction, it could really make someoneโs day, their life, it could be the positive that they need.โ
A great lesson we could all keep in our minds. Thank you to Jennifer for being that one person to cause a huge change in a strangerโs life. Watch the video to watch the
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