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Embracing The Uncertainty Of Life Leads To Resilience

A characteristic of resilience is having an ability to make decisions without having all the answers figured out first. I believe this comes from a faith that no matter how something works out, you will either have success or you will learn something important about yourself.
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A tourist walks across the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge near Vancouver, Canada.
Christopher Kimmel via Getty Images
A tourist walks across the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge near Vancouver, Canada.

For as long as I can remember, I've found great solace living in the margins -- tenuous spaces inhabited by those set adrift, the wanderers and the disenfranchised. I spent much of life uncoiled and disconnected, first living as an emotional chameleon, a direct result of childhood trauma, and later as I nursed the seismic aftershocks of that trauma reverberating through my teens and into my 30s in the guise of addiction and suicidal depression.

Yet here I am today at 50 -- an elite athlete, author and international advocate for survivors of sexual violence. I do a lot of public speaking, and the question I'm most frequently asked is: How were you able to use the adversity in your life as a stepping stone for growth and success?

I believe it all comes down to resilience, and by that, I'm not referring to that static inner strength that allows us to endure or survive great hardship, trauma or loss, but rather to a fluid quality within that enables certain individuals to actively respond to and redirect the untethered energy of that adversity. It's a conscious decision that is available to all of us when we face our most all-consuming challenges, yet it is a choice that few are willingly to embrace -- for me, that is what sets apart people who are "resilient" from those who merely "survive."

So, how do you get to the place where you can nurture resilience in your life? I'm currently at work on a book about that very question, and part of the research for this project involves interviewing over 100 people from around the world who have demonstrated immense and sustained resilience through some extremely challenging life circumstances. A theme that continues to reappear in these interviews is the importance of "getting comfortable feeling uncomfortable." In other words, it's learning to exist within yourself and navigate along those disarming margins we often find ourselves in.

By learning to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, we open up the possibility to innovate in order to find new ways forward through adversity.

Anthropology refers to something called "liminality," a term that has its etymology in the Latin word "līmen," meaning "a threshold." It is a concept that is used to describe that period of uncertainty and disorientation occurring within the middle of a ritual when participants can no longer trust the pre-ritual status and have yet to identify and enlist the appropriate transition or way of being needed to move forward. It's a disorienting feeling during which identity, community and security are in great flux.

I believe that our ability to be resilient has much to do with how we weather so-called liminal periods of our life. It is those times that often arise out of trauma, adversity or great loss, when our previous way of being no longer serves us, and all our social and cultural values are called into question. Our way of interacting begins to dissolve and we have as yet to find or embrace, a new way of interacting with our environment.

Over the years, I have learned to recognize these moments not as periods of disintegration, but rather as opportunities for integration and creativity. We all face these periods of uncertainty in our life, so I thought I would invite you to consider adopting these strategies the next time you find yourself in a state of liminal disequilibrium:

Adopt an IDEA mindset

IDEA is an acronym I created that stands for innovate, delegate, excavate and accelerate. By learning to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, we open up the possibility to innovate in order to find new ways forward through adversity. Second, by delegating or deferring to others, we not only invite help into our lives but also stave off isolation by creating bridges of connection. Periods of dissonance provide an ideal time to excavate, or self-reflect -- time to take a close look at what sits in our hearts and eats at our soul. And finally, sooner or later you have to move beyond the liminal threshold of uncertainty, and the sooner you can accelerate that motivation to do that, the better you'll feel.

Timing is everything... Don't wait!

I recently heard an interview with Brandon Stanton, the creative genius behind the internationally famous photo blog entitled Humans of New York. As you can imagine, Brandon is often asked by aspiring photographers and creatives what he credits with the phenomenal success of his project, and his advice is to not wait until you have something all figured out before you start. In other words, "You have to start something before you're ready, [and in the process] you learn courage by doing things when you are afraid. Don't wait until you are not afraid before you start."

Harness the thrill of the uncertainty

One thing is for certain, the wake of trauma, adversity or deep loss brings with it a debilitating weight of indecision steeped in fear. A characteristic of resilience is having an ability to make decisions without having all the answers figured out first. I believe this comes from a faith that no matter how something works out, you will either have success or you will learn something important about yourself.

I once heard Elizabeth Gilbert describe it in this way: "I'm more excited and thrilled by the feeling of the jump rather than the landing... No one knows where he or she is going to the land, we have no control over that, but we do have control of how we feel when we jump."

If you, or someone you know, exhibits a high level of resilience, and you would like to be interviewed for my upcoming book, please contact me at runjprun@gmail.com.

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