You know Sir Winston Churchill.
Famous for his duties during World War 2 as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940–1945 and later from 1951–1955.
Besides being a great statesman, he also is a great source of inspiration for when times are getting tough — being the commander of the U.K. during WW2, you must be resilient.
Here are 5 life lessons from Winston Churchill to get you through tougher times.
Keep Going, Don’t Stop
“If you are going through hell, keep going.”
It makes no sense that once you’re going through hell you’re stopping in the middle of it.
It can’t get worse.
The best you can do when things aren’t going well is to keep going because it’s only getting better.
In the middle of a battle in World War 2, Churchill’s soldiers weren’t able to give up and go back home — they would end up dying. To keep going is the best way of working towards a positive outcome.
Don’t Fear Your Enemies
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something in your life.”
Just like Sir Winston says here if you have enemies (or haters online) you did something right.
You managed to grab their attention.
Everybody has to deal with enemies at some point in their life. It’s tough at first, but you wouldn’t want a life where everybody talks with you.
Keep this in mind: as long as people talk about you or tend to be negative towards you, they haven’t forgotten about you and you’ll still generate attention.
Keep going.
Have courage
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
I’ve written a lot about courage. “The courage to be Disliked” is a great book by Ichiro Kishimi that inspired me to think more about “courage”.
It’s true what Churchill says here.
If you don’t have courage in any way, you’re not getting any further. Dare to change, dare to dream, and dare to think outside of your comfort zone.
Especially in times when Churchill was leading his country into war, courage was so important. If you weren’t courageous, you couldn’t succeed on the battlefield.
Keep that in mind.
There Will Always Be “The Truth”
Will there be truth in the end?
“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
When everything is gone, the truth remains as the only thing left.
You can’t hide from the truth and it will eventually uncover itself for the rest of the world to see it. Imagine being an important person in World War 2 and saying this.
There must be a lot of courage behind Churchill.
Don’t Negotiate With Your Butcher
“Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.”
It’s like “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”.
You eventually will lose when you’re trying to negotiate your fate with the one who’s about to “harvest you”.
We see this a lot in modern politics. The government terribly fails in its job and then offers you something that “makes it better” (after they’ve ruined it for you).
You pay for their mistakes.