Five Quotes That Teach Us About Fighting Our Battles

A few days ago, I talked about why learning to choose the battles you fight is important, and while researching for that article, I came upon some quotes that spoke to me on another level. There’s so much to learn from these sentences, and they are valuable pieces of advice that we often tweet about and then forget.

“Not all battles are worth fighting, this is something all of us know in theory, but seldom know how to practice it. There’s a thin line between not taking action because you are scared and not taking action because it is not worth it.”

This was my opening to the article, and honestly, this is something that most of us struggle with. It is so easy to get caught up in the wind and let the situations get the better of us.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Let’s begin with this. When we talk about how people or things affect us, we don’t take into account that, it is us who give the power to things or people to make us feel with the intensity we do. You will have realized it at some point in your life, how something that got the better of your options doesn’t even make you bat an eye now. 

This is one of the tricks to reduce the impact bad situations have on us. Rationalize with yourself and tell yourself why it isn’t worth losing sleep over.

“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it.”

-George Bernard Shaw

“Some people love baiting other people to get a reaction out of them. These people are usually attention seekers; they like the attention being on them. For that, they will rope in anyone,” is what I said when I used this quote, and this is basically the essence of it. 

Some people are just toxic; we need to accept the fact and move on. There’s no point in talking about why they are the way they are or trying to change them because the only thing that is going to happen is you getting slathered with mud in this figurative sense, and also by them running their mouths.

“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

-Sun Tzu

and

“Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.”

-Norman Vincent Peale

Taking the earlier point further, trying to avoid fights doesn’t make you a coward, it makes you smart. There’s no point in getting your hands dirty if you can get the work done without having to. Trying to find alternatives that work for everyone is a smart tactic that avoids a lot of animosity in personal as well as professional life. 

Most of the time, staying calm and folding under the weight of your anger, disappointment, broken expectations, and trust, etc. can help you more in your situation and help you diffuse it more efficiently. In the heat of the moment, it takes seconds to lose your calm and say something that can’t be repaired in years.

“To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.”

-Og Mandino

That being said, it is also easy to disguise your inability to take action as you being a bigger person and not trying to overreact when, in fact, you are actually scared. Whenever you try to get out of your comfort zone or are in a pickle, it is easy for our brain to come up with reasons to help us not feel that way and that can have a negative impact on you in the long run.

Always question why should you hold back and why should you jump in. Put yourself through a proper decision analysis if it is a big thing, especially if it is a big thing.

Final Thoughts

Life is filled with small daily fights sprinkled with the big ones we fight. It can get overwhelming, and our motto for life can get all muddled up in that. So, it is essential to take a breather and think about what you are putting your energy into and is it worth it.