Option B: Building Resilience

Option B is a book by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton.

The authors have presented key points from the book in a 20 minute LinkedIn course - Option B: Building Resilience

Here is a summary from the transcript -

When something bad happens - big or small, how much are we able to overcome it? Or, how well do we persevere in the face of it?

Resilience is the strength and speed of our response to adversity.

How do I build resilience? - It's a skill set that we work on throughout our lives. It's something that we can build long before we face any kind of tragedy or difficulty.

We can build resilience over time by changing how we process negative events

Severe adversity brings real perspective which is about finding appreciation and recognizing, my life could be worse, and realizing how fortunate you are to have the good things that you do in your life.

Resilience can be strengthened by expressing gratitude for the good things in our life.

The Mum Effect: People avoid discussing upsetting topics

Opening up helps us overcome isolation

Acknowledging suffering is the first step toward speaking with empathy and honesty - How are you today?

One of the ways you build resilience is you fight permanence. You have to believe that it won't be this bad forever. 

Affective forecasting is a prediction of how we will feel in the future. Many of us overestimate how long the misery will last.

Replace words always and never with sometimes and lately

Self-compassion: approaching yourself with the same kindness and understanding that you would show to a friend.

When we face hardship in one domain of their life, it can affect their confidence in all other domains. Secondary losses have a negative impact on different parts of our lives after loss or trauma. So there's a primary loss, and then following that there are all these cascade effects that people really are not prepared for.

Focusing on small wins can help build confidence - write down three things you've done well each day, it's tranformative

Treat others as they would want to be treated NOT as you would want to be treated.

Part of being a good friend is being a "button" for others to press if their pain is too much

We often learn what people need not by offering help, but by taking action.

We can bounce forward after experiencing loss or hardship.

When people go through hardship, they're not just more motivated to help others, in many situations; they often want to help people in exactly the way that they've been hurt.

Helping others in similar situations gives our suffering meaning.

Happiness is the frequency of positive experiences - not the intensity

Noticing moments of joy can make the whole day joyful

Comments