We've been doing a lot of teaching on resilience lately. We say that set-backs are opportunities to bounce-back in a resilience mindset, and bounce back in a way that we are better off for it! We allow that setback experience to shape us as an OFLAG, an opportunity for learning and growth.

I had a chance to speak with a youth group about my personal experience of learning to fly. Trying something out and failing does not mean failure! The resilient mindset looks at the very word, "failure" differently - it's a learning moment. For me, it gave me space to decide what goals I really did want to pursue. The second time around I had the focus required to make it happen. Enjoy the whole story in the Resilience video and share! 

Welcome to what might be the most unusual Spring we’ll ever have!

So many good things are emerging in the midst of a crisis that it seems worthwhile to point out a few. We’ve launched a series of webinars focused on applying TRP. The webinars feature a facilitated discussion that allows everyone to talk about what each of us is doing to stay optimistic. The sessions have been described as “therapeutic,” “inspiring,” and “just what I needed” by those who have attended! I hope you’ll join us on an upcoming session and spread the word to others. We also continue delivering TRP virtually and been having lots of fun with it. Find info on our webinars and virtual training here. 

Christopher Wilson, a TRP trainer in New York, posted the following in our Facebook group. If you’re not a member of the group, send a request to join and we’d be glad to have you. This is one of the many uplifting posts that have been started and nurtured in that group. Enjoy the below and the #gratitudechallenge.

There are about 50 of us, at my agency, kicking off a week of focusing on gratitude… I thought I would share. 

Here was today's challenge, for those of you who want to play along at home: There are many things in life that we take for granted. Simple things we don't notice until they are unavailable.

I never gave hot showers a second thought until I spent 15 months deployed in Iraq. Not a week that goes by that I don’t appreciate my ability to take one whenever I want.

Unique and challenging circumstances, such as the one our country faces today, allow us the opportunity to see our lives through a different lens, focusing on what really matters and being grateful for the things we have.

Take a moment today to identify one thing that you have taken for granted. How has your perspective changed over the last few weeks? What could you do moving forward to keep your gratitude at the forefront?

Finally, we would be GRATEFUL if you’d share your story with us. What are you grateful for right now? How are you paying it forward? Can we help? Stay in touch and stay well!

​Lately, we’ve been doing more and more work helping teams face the obstacles in their path – see our new “Raise the OFLAG” program. Too often, we think the problem we face is external, something “out there.” At TRP, our skill is to help teams look at what the opportunity for learning and growth is, “in here.” Looking at what we can change (instead of what we can’t), is deeply rewarding, if not easy. We get to hear amazing stories in this process. For example, while working with a client this past week, we asked our participants to reflect on this question:
 
What is a setback that you have experienced in life, which turned out to be a hidden opportunity for learning and growth (an O-FLAG)?
 
A remarkable answer came from a female participant, about 40 years old. She shared that about eight years ago she filed for divorce from a man who turned out to be not who he appeared to be when they married. It had taken her years to develop the courage to make the move to end the marriage. Her young daughter at the time, was seven years old which made the decision all the more difficult for her. She had very little money, and the divorce left her with almost nothing. To make ends meet, she realized something drastic would be required of her.
 
She held a yard sale and sold nearly everything she owned. She was left with no possessions, but was able to take the money she made and start a new life. For a short time, she and her daughter actually lived in her car before her parents ended up taking them both in. It took the better part of the year, but slowly she got back on her feet. Today she is a proud home-owner, single mother to a teenage daughter, and working for an employer in a job she truly enjoys. She went on to describe all the good things that had come out of that challenging chapter in her life and how she looks back on it as one of the best things that could have happened to her. It was a profound opportunity for learning and growth.
 
Her fellow participants sat in awe of this tale, you could feel their admiration. When she finished, I asked her, “What do you think your daughter learned from that period of life that the two of you shared together?” She paused only for a moment before replying: “I believe that my daughter learned, that no matter what is presented to us in life, we have the strength to see our way through it.”
 
Her answer came with the clarity of one who has sold all she had, lived in her car, and found through all of that, what she is truly made of.
 
Perhaps for each of us there have been events that appeared to be a “setback” and over time, we made meaning of that event. Or perhaps there are challenges that lay ahead, their significance yet to be uncovered. Our task is to discover the hidden opportunity for learning and growth that waits within.