Learning Resilience During Tough Times
The past several years haven’t been easy ones for our nation. The terrorist attack of 9/11. The war in Iraq. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The collapse of the stock market. The ensuing deep recession. Tragedy and adversity are, in fact, a part of life; we cannot prevent bad things from happening. What we can do is build the skills and attitudes necessary to survive them.
Duct Tape Isn’t Enough: Survival Skills for the 21st Century does not focus on blaming the bad guys for our problems or finding the right good guy to act as our savior. Instead, it forces us to look to our own inner strength to manage the situations we confront. Optimism, flexibility, teamwork, self-confidence, and the rightness of what we are doing have sustained human societies throughout history. To survive the hard times of the 21st century, we need to look to the past and practice what we know works. We need to call upon the spirit of America that enabled our parents and grandparents to survive two world wars, the Great Depression, and Vietnam. Like duct tape, blinking lights and computer screens are wonderful inventions, but they are not enough to hold our world together.
In this book, author Dr. Ron Breazeale has created a unique and effective method of instilling resiliency. Combining the autobiographical novel Reaching Home, which outlines his own achievement over adversity, with a hands-on workbook and other training materials provides a step-by-step method for triumph over hardship. By extensively examining our country’s past to sort out what will and won’t work in the present, Breazeale shows you:
- The inventive skills and confident attitudes previous generations used to survive the Great Depression
- The impact of fear on your ability to think clearly and make wise decisions
- That "home" is not a building but a state of mind
- The benefits of the dual strategy of solving problems by looking to yourself, as well as connecting with others
- Ways to strengthen and maintain your resourcefulness to deal with adversity and tragedy
- Why being optimistic now is more important than ever before
Written in cooperation with the Maine Resilience Project, Duct Tape Isn’t Enough is an essential resource for trainers, educators, and others searching for the powerful secrets of adapting to adversity.
