Becoming a tough guy

How do you become a tough guy? Exercise and tatoos? What about obtaining the mental resolve to be tough? What do you think? Are you tough?

Toughness is developed through enviromental & socio-ecnomic pressures with a little bit of genetic predisposition thrown in. You can't just wake up one day and decide to be a tough guy. Tattoos or any manner of dress does not equate someone to being a tough guy. Also one guy might be tough in one situation and weak in another. I think society nowadays does a pretty good job of producing weak minded men.

i have 51 tattoos and i am not exactly a tough guy. imo if you want to be tough then train in muay thai or jui jitsu or something and keep it to yourself. it is the quiet ones you have to worry about. loudmouth punks are just that.

Toughness... resilience.

Such an odd commodity. Perhaps you should try working on it, in stages. The more you subject yourself to, the more you can take. By constantly pushing your mental state to breaking, you are pushing that line, further and further.

Incidentally, you could fail at this. You could break. It's takes the additional self discipline of not allowing yourself to quit that drive you ever forward. But be aware you risk failure if you push too hard.

For me, it was a long strange trip. 2 months in a mental health ward, being told I had 3 months to live, making 720 dollars but needing 2000 dollars to break even per month, being engaged 3 times... etc.

Why do you want to be a "tough guy"?





Edit: my suggestion is to be yourself, just as God made you.

[edit on 12/22/2008 by kinglizard]

What is your definition of "tough"?

Mine is.....

Men that go to work everyday. Love and take care of kids that aren't even theirs. Put up with a shrew of a wife. Supports an invalid mother and father. And Never complain or whine about his situation in life. That's tough!!


[edit on 22-12-2008 by whaaa]

It is easy to be a "tough guy".


To be gentle, to be caring and decent, to show empathy and compassion toward your fellow man, to be a decnt human being, THAT is difficult.


Being tough is over rated and requires nothing .

[edit on 12/22/08 by BlackOps719]

Originally posted by BlackOps719


It is easy to be a "tough guy".


To be gentle, to be caring and decent, to show empathy and compassion toward your fellow man, to be a decnt human being, THAT is difficult.


Being tough is over rated and requires nothing .

[edit on 12/22/08 by BlackOps719]

Excellent post. Absolute truth as well. Unless of course we are talking, Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood "toughguy". Unfortunately, that is a gift and you have to be born with it.

Being tough is complicated. Walking around with muscles and intimidating people isn't tough. That just makes you look stupid and trust me anyone can be taken down easily. To me tough is being able to survive. Being able to thrive in hazardous situations and keep your cool when # hits the fan. Tough is surviving things that most people won't have to deal with. Tough is also being able to do the wrong thing even though you know that you will hurt someone else but it has to be done. Physical toughness is being able to withstand punishment and perform. Look at the Seals. The physically toughest, the fastest and even most athletes couldn't make it. But the mentally tough can. It's about being able to suffer and push through it.

Depends if you want to be a tough guy or APPEAR to be a tough guy. If you want to appear tough, tattoos and muscles will probably convince some folks. If you actually want to be tough you have to stand up for what you believe and never back down, physically or mentally. I consider myself a tough guy but it has nothing to do with my tattoos and muscles, it's because I will go out of my way to help someone that needs it, will stand up for the little guy and can turn the other cheek.

One of the toughest men I have ever met was a soft spoken man with MS that was in the same assisted living home as my Grandfather. He never complained, always smiled and helped all the elderly people (He was thirty something) every day. The staff loved him as he would always help and cheer people up. He ended up getting a lot better and leaving but still goes back to visit.

There are sooo many different types of tough...

You could be emotionally tough,like a doctor needs to be, not letting someone dieing infront of you affect you badly...

You could be physically tough, whic is easy, just work out.

You could look/sound tough, once again very easy to do.

You could be silently tough, out of everyone in the room, you would win any fight, but it's not obviously that way, you don't go about shouting out your toughness.

You could be morally tough, always doing the right thing....

You could be mentally tough, not afraid to die, ready to throw yourself into anything...

It depends what you want to be, some are easy to do, other are hard, some you are boen with.