It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that things are difficult.
— Seneca
Remember that commercial – “Is it real or is it Memorex?” They would usually have an opera singer hitting a really high note and breaking a glass and then play the recording of the singer and break another glass. It was a way to show the true fidelity of the recording.
I’ve been noticing how much we, as a society, have been talking about our troubles. Have you noticed? We talk about what bothers us more than we talk about what pleases us. There’s been a lot of conversation about how bad things are economically and how the Baby Boomers won’t have the retirement that they expected. It seems that we’re on a perpetual downer around here. The conclusion that I’ve reached is that somehow, we’ve decided that problems aren’t part of life, which is why we get soooo bent out of shape when a problem turns up.
I blame it on the Declaration of Independence. Continue reading » Is It Adversity or Is It Life?
How about it, will you do your ABC’s for 48 hours?
PattiAnn and I used to be (well I guess we still are) experts on sales and service performance improvement. That was our niche. What caused us to shift our focus to resilience?
Going From Hero to Zero
Well, if you are lucky enough to know and love sales or service people, you’re familiar with the daunting tasks they face: they search for and secure elusive new business, soothe the inevitable irate customers, satisfy the demands of anxious managers, overcome all the quirks and foibles of their company’s operational systems and, despite all their dedication and perseverance, they go from hero to zero on the first day of every month! That’s pretty darn discouraging. So, to serve our customers better, PattiAnn and I hunted for and found better bounceback solutions to help them with their daily heapings of adversities.
What pleasures have you been denying yourself by not using those wonderful treasures stored away in your cupboards and closets? Isn’t it time to break out the “good stuff”? Let us know how that works for you!
Many folks are going through hard times right now. That’s especially true on a couple fronts: the financial front and the morale front. Some have lost jobs; some can’t find new jobs; some worry about losing jobs. All of us, I suspect even those who still feel secure financially, are pulling in our horns, spending less, finding ways to “make-do” or “do without”. And many of you are exercising that third characteristic of resilient people: you’ve become practicing “bricoleurs” creatively using what’s at hand to solve problems.
Continue reading » Got It? Use It!
I think many of us, especially me, live our lives acting as though Murphy’s Law and its corollaries predict our future:
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you think…
And that, I’m guessing, is what leads us to build “Worst Case Scenarios”. I myself think it’s a good thing to do. And so does Julie Norem, who gives a name to the process in her book, The Positive Power of Negative Thinking: Using Defensive Pessimism to Harness Anxiety and Perform at Your Peak
. She calls it “‘defensive pessimism’ … a process that allows anxious people to do good planning.”
Continue reading » Worst Case Planning Got You Down?
Is Theater the Ultimate Brain Fitness Product?
In an earlier posting, Overwhelmed With Troubles?, I commented on the value of creative expression as an attitude stabilizer and resilience builder. And now my gut feel about the drawing lessons has been validated. A recent post on the blog Cognitive Daily cites a study that confirmed the efficacy of visual arts programs AND the even more impressive gains that the research subjects experienced when participating in a theatre arts program. Continue reading » Theatre Arts, Prepaid Phones and All That Jazz!
photo credit: magerleagues
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