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Resilience
(Bouncing Back from Failure and Adversity)

Resilience = "The capacity to successfully manage high levels of change."

Quote: ''I am grateful for all my problems. After each one was overcome, I become stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.'' (J.C. Penney)

I. Discover the Benefits of Adversity

What to Do With a Train Crash?

Personal Reflection: Write down some things you don't like about your life: bad circumstances, personal weaknesses, etc.

Brainstorm: Name as many good things as you can that come from hard times. Now look back at your personal list. Can good come out of these as well? How could your attitude toward life improve if you thought of these as assets rather than liabilities?

Action Point: Reflect on the benefits of shortcomings and failures to see them in a positive light.

II. Don't Be Surprised By Opposition and Failure.

Illustration: Study: “Cradles of Eminence”

* 3 out of 4 of the children were troubled either by poverty, by a broken home, or by parents who were rejecting, over possessive, or dominating.

* 74 out of the 85 writers of fiction or drama and 16 out of 20 poets came from homes where, as children, they saw tense psychological drama played out by their parents. (Translation: Their home lives stunk.)

* Physical handicaps, such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs characterized over one-fourth of these people.

If everything is coming your way, then you're probably in the wrong lane. (Bumper Sticker)

Putting it Into Life: As Sir Edmund Hillary said after he first failed to reach the top of Mount Everest , " Mount Everest , you have defeated me. But I will return, and I will defeat you because you can't get any bigger -- and I can!'' Sure enough, he became the first person to stand on the top of that mountain at 11:30 AM , May 29, 1953 .

Action Point: Don't be surprised when things go wrong. Remember: The road to success is paved with failures.

III. Find a Team.

The world's best known theoretical physicist: Albert Einstein and ''The Olympia Academy.''
The most successful entrepreneur: Bill Gates and ''The Lakeside Programmers Group.''
One of the wisest men of his time: Benjamin Franklin and “Junto.”
Two incredibly popular writers: J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) and C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and “The Inklings”

Action Point: Don’t go it alone.

IV. Resist Resilience Killers.

Illustration: Jim Morrison gets a baby sitter.

Illustration: Marilyn Manson fires bass player.

''By then his life was heroin. Playing bass was just a way of killing time between shots.'' (Manson on his bass player, Brad)

Quote: "All my mistakes -- all my stupid f---ups -- I can categorically tell you are a direct result of alcohol and drugs or both." (Ozzy Osborne)

Action Point: Avoid things that will undermine your success.

V. Find Something Worth Being Resilient About.

Illustration #1: Bethany Hamilton recently lost her arm to a shark.

"If I was like a person that just quit surfing after this, I wouldn't be a real surfer," she said. "I'm definitely going to get back in the water."

Illustration #2: Ronald bounces back.

Illustration #3 Tom Cruise bounces back.

The bottom line? The road to success is paved with failures. Only the resilient will succeed in the end.