This morning I almost got carried away by an article that I was reading in the New Yorker about a man called Rick Rescorla. I was fascinated by his life story and if you get the chance, do read about him. He was the Vice President in charge of security at Morgan Stanley at their offices at the World Trade Center that came down in 9/11. Morgan Stanley had 40 floors at the World Trade Center with about 2,700 employees. When the planes hit, he was responsible for getting them out. He managed to get 2,700 of them out; only 7 people from Morgan Stanley died and Rick Rescorla was one of them. He died trying to go back to see if there were any more stragglers who hadn't yet made it; and he never made it out.
Just reading, not only about what happened on that day, but his life – he was a British soldier, fought in a couple of wars there, then left and came to the United States and got his citizenship. He joined the army, went to Vietnam and was very highly decorated. Most people, especially his colleagues in the units, remember him as a wonderful force of energy that wouldn't ever give up. He would take everything that came his way and still bounced back.
Towards the end, he had prostate cancer. He had to take painful injections in his stomach, yet would still go to work and get drills going because he believed that was what he needed to do. And that's what worked in getting all of the employees out. He would have these drills that would evacuate all these people. In one minute, everybody had to leave their desks and be on their way out. I was so captured by the resilience that was the hallmark of his life. He took everything that life threw at him and bounced back.
I remember when we used to go out and buy toys for children, there used to be a punching clown that stood up straight no matter how much you hit it – it bounced back. It was a great way to expend energy for children. Life's like that! It keeps giving us knocks and it's only the resilient among us who are able to come back. One of the things that I've learnt over these years is that when you get hit, there's only one thing that we ought to remember – don't stay down.
The late Nelson Mandela used to say, "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." We will fall, but the greatest glory is in rising every time we do fall. I wonder about you and me today, how are we in terms of resilience? Are we taking a beating? Are we down? Are we able to get up? Do we have resilience within us to help us to overcome some of the things that life is throwing our way?
What is resilience? Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity. If we look around us today, we see that there are multiple triggers for stress and adversity in our lives. Or it's that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever.
How about you, my friends? How resilient are you? How have you adapted to the knocks that the world is sending your way? Resilient people don't dwell on the past, on failures, on setbacks, on disasters. They move on, take new ground, build new bridges, power their way out of situations, forge new friendships, get over self-pity and depression and dejection and say, "I'm not going to allow these things to get hold of my life. I'm going to just move on."
Dean Becker, who is President and CEO of Adaptiv Learning Systems, said, "More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person's level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That's true in the cancer ward, it's true in the Olympics and it's true in the boardroom." It's your resilience that will determine whether you are successful or you fail.
Diane Coutu, writing an article for Harvard Business Review, says that she has looked at lots of theories about resilience and has observed that there are three theories that overlap. Resilient people have 3 characteristics, namely:
1. A staunch acceptance of reality.
2. A deep belief, often buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful.
3. An uncanny ability to improvise.
"You can bounce back from hardship with just one or two of these qualities, but you will only be truly resilient with all three. These three characteristics hold true for resilient organizations as well."
A staunch acceptance of reality – not that we have a false sense of optimism and just an optimistic outlook to life: "Yeah! This is okay. It's going to get better." Jim Collins tried that out. In fact he said, "I had a hunch that that's what made for good companies, that they were optimistic. That was my hunch but all the data that I had found that it was not right." Collins says that, at one point, he talked to Admiral Jim Stockdale, who had been held prisoner and tortured by the Vietcong for eight years. Collins recalls, "I asked Stockdale: 'Who didn't make it out of the camps?' And he said, 'Oh, that's easy. It was the optimists. They were the ones who said we were going to be out by Christmas. And then they said we'd be out by Easter and then out by Fourth of July and out by Thanksgiving, and then it was Christmas again.' Then Stockdale turned to me and said, 'You know, I think they all died of broken hearts."
It's not just about being optimistic; it's having a clear sense and an acceptance of reality. Rick Rescorla, when he was involved in evacuating these 2,700 people, knew exactly what was going on. Initially they had a call from Port Authority saying, "Tell everybody to remain at their desks and be calm." He said, "That was the wrong thing to do." immediately, he got out his bullhorn and said, "Evacuate! Evacuate! Evacuate! Everybody – out of the building." That's what saved all those people at Stanley Morgan. A clear sense of reality.
A deep belief, often buttressed by strongly held values, that life is meaningful. Life IS meaningful, my friends. Every moment that we have is meaningful, and every moment that we spend on the mat after taking a hit, prevents us from inheriting and taking part in everything that God has for us in our life. I wonder whether I am speaking to some of you today, whether you have taken a hit, whether you are on the mat. You are not getting up and feel that you have really taken a beating. I wonder whether today would be a day for you to say, "Okay, I guess I've taken a beating and I know that. But I'm not going to stay on the mat anymore." Somebody once said, "Life doesn't get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient." So true! Life really doesn't get easier or more forgiving. But we need to get stronger and more resilient.
How do we do that? The American Psychological Association says there are quite a few things that we can do to start being more resilient. I'm going to give that to you and hope that you will dwell on them as you look at your life.
· Make connections.
· Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems. They are surmountable; there can be a solution to the problem.
· Accept that change is a part of living. It is.
· Move towards your goals. Get up. Re-look at the goals that you have for yourself and move towards them.
· Take decisive actions. Don't vacillate at a point like that.
· Look for opportunities for self-discovery. What can you look into your own life and say: Oh! I never thought I had that. That's a wonderful quality that I just discovered as I went through this particular setback.
· Nurture a positive view of yourself.
· Keep things in perspective.
· Maintain a hopeful outlook.
· Take care of yourself.
Just a few things to help you and me to be more resilient.
Dr. Cantor, from Harvard Business Review, says, "Employees who are fast, friendly, flexible and focused, make for companies that are fast, friendly, flexible and focused. And that creates wonderful companies as well.
Today, you're either at a point where you have taken a beating; you've been a little resilient. You need to be resilient. Maybe you're on the mat, maybe you're just facing setbacks – a promotion hasn't come your way, you're finding yourself moved out. Whatever it is – don't give up. Look at life and say: I'm going to chart my course. I'm not going to allow the circumstance to do it.
For me, every time I'm faced with a situation like that, one of the greatest things I have is the fact that the Almighty God says to me, to you as well: I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. I WILL NOT EVER FORSAKE YOU.
That's a wonderful thing to know when we are on the mat, when you've taken a hard hit, to know that God is up there saying: "Get up! I'm with you. There's a path in front. There's a goal in front. I'll help you and strengthen you." That is what we need to hold on to as we go through difficult times.
Resilience. Get up. Move on. There are still things to be done. Challenge, control, commitment. Remember, change, not stability is the norm. Believe they can influence events in their lives. Engage with the world around you. I think we'll be well on the path to being resilient ones. That's my prayer, that's my hope for each one of us today.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God. If there's anyone on this call who has taken a beating, who is on the mat and finding it difficult to get up. I pray that they would look up and see your hand reaching out. Take it. Allow them to get up, strengthen them, inspire them, motivate them and lead them to the path that you have already carved out for them. Let each one of us inherit the promise that You have for us. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
• The story of Rick Rescorla, James B. Stewart, "The Real Heroes are Dead." http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/the-real-heroes-are-dead
• Nelson Mandela quote: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/resilience
• Diane Coutu, "How Resilience Works." https://hbr.org/2002/05/how-resilience-works
• David Lee, "Why You Will Need a Resilient Workforce in Today's Economy." http://humannatureatwork.com/resilientworkforce.htm
• "The Road to Resilience," American Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx
• Bible reference: Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5
• Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries, "Assessment: How Resilient are You?" https://hbr.org/2015/01/assessment-how-resilient-are-you
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