When Erik Weihenmayer started to lose the last traces of his sight between eighth and ninth grade, he thought the world was ending. A few months later, the TV show That's Incredible was recounting the story of Terry Fox's battle against cancer, and, with his nose pressed up against the TV screen, the youngster watched Terry's dramatic one-legged run. "What struck me most was the look on his face. It was a look of extreme contradiction: Full of exhaustion yet radiant with exultation. In his thin face was the trace flicker of an intense internal light that burned power into his struggling frame. The image filled my sagging spirit and gave me a feeling of utter courage. Many would have retreated from such hardship, but - surprisingly - Terry faced it head-on and literally ran into its midst.
"It was while staring into Terry's face that I first wondered how we could harness the great storm of adversity swirling around us and use its power to make ourselves stronger and better," Mr. Weihenmayer recalls.
The spark lit that day led him to take on, and succeed at, his own dramatic challenge: Becoming the first blind person to climb the top of seven mountains on each continent, including the famed Everest. What he learned first-hand about adversity in those bids has now allowed him to team up with Paul Stoltz, author of the excellent 1999 book Adversity Quotient, to show us how to turn our everyday struggles into a springboard for greater achievement.
In the earlier book, Mr. Stoltz divided people into three groups: quitters or campers stop short in the face of life's challenges, either quitting the struggle or camping at a level below peak performance because they lack the will to strive for more. Climbers, on the other hand, possess a high "adversity quotient" and routinely overcome obstacles to achieve success.
With that framework and Mr. Weihenmayer's exploits, it's inevitable that the book they wrote together, The Adversity Advantage, revolves around seven summits, weaving Mr. Weihenmayer's compelling stories of climbing mountains with Mr. Stoltz's research and experiences working to improve individuals' ability to handle adversity.
Instead of turning away from your adversity, you must turn directly into it and welcome it, recognizing the challenge will strengthen you and allow you to go further by overcoming it. Mr. Weihenmayer couldn't escape his blindness, so he was forced to deal with it - and the challenges he embraced while climbing mountains. The authors urge you to define the challenges you face, figure out the benefits from tackling those challenges, and implement a strategy for action on the most significant challenge.
In contemplating action, don't count on your existing strengths to ease you through. Use the adversity to sharpen existing strengths but even more importantly let it help you grow entirely new strengths. "Think of the times you faced a tough situation and, unintentionally, emerged with new confidence, a new insight, or perhaps a deeper connection with the magnitude of your own resilience," Mr. Weihenmayer writes. "My bet is you wouldn't trade those moments for anything. Neither would I."
Mr. Stoltz goes overboard on acronyms in his sections of the book, but CORE is a useful one for understanding that to overcome adversity you must influence, or Control, what you can in your predicament; take Ownership, or responsibility, for acting rather than leaving your fate to others; minimize the extent of the Reach of the impact, not viewing it as all-encompassing; and minimize how long you believe it will Endure, so you aren't paralyzed.
You must go beyond the tried and true responses to your situation and pioneer new possibilities. Mr. Weihenmayer has developed all sorts of systems for mountain climbing to compensate for being blind. Pick a worthy goal, devise special systems that fit your talents, and then practice those new systems, as he does before his expeditions.
Jettison stuff in your life that gets in the way of overcoming your challenges, and manage your time effectively. Focus on what matters in life, and keep agile.
Life, and the adversities it brings, means you will suffer. Your choice is to suffer poorly by bringing down others and becoming meaner, or suffer well by using your distress to help and enrich others, become a better person, and transcend your obstacle. "To suffer well is to marinate in pain rather than anaesthetize yourself against it. To suffer well is to forge your character and harden your resolve," Mr. Weihenmayer writes.
Bring this together so that every day you demonstrate resilience, magnanimity, compassion, fortitude, goodwill and integrity that elevates yourself and others in the face of adversity.
The book is well developed, with the thoughts and separate writing of the two authors blended into a surprisingly seamless package. It offers stirring stories of overcoming adversity as well as lots of practical tips and templates for improving your own abilities in this vital area.
The Adversity Advantage By Paul Stoltz and Erik WeihenmayerCreated on ... September 12, 2007