You’re Stronger Thank You Think
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
– James Baldwin
On Christmas Eve 1971, Juliane Diller boarded a flight with her mom. They were to fly from Lima, Peru, on the coast, over the Andes to Pucallpa in the Amazon jungle. The weather was bad. The plane shook and bags fell out of the overhead compartments. From her window seat in the back row, 17-year-old Juliane saw lightning strike the plane’s wing. The plane entered a nosedive and her mother cried, “Now it’s all over.” In moments the aircraft broke apart. Juliane, still belted to her row of three seats, was ejected 10,000 feet above the ground.
Before passing out, Juliane remembers seeing the trees below like “heads of broccoli.” Miraculously, she survived the nearly two-mile plunge to the jungle floor. Her collarbone was broken. One eye was swollen shut. Concussed, without her eyeglasses, she was functionally blind. No one else survived.
Over the next 11 days, in a miniskirt with one sandal and a small bag of candy, Juliane followed a rivulet to a creek to a river. Eventually, she ran into a group of workers who brought her to safety.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog documented Juliane’s story in Wings of Hope. He was in the airport with Juliane and narrowly missed taking the same flight while scouting locations for another film.
Sometimes when everything seems to go wrong and I imagine I can’t take any more, I think of Juliane. If a 17-year-old can survive all that, what can’t we endure?
Here’s a simple exercise we use in our training during market shifts and when morale is low. I call it the “Resilience Exercise.” It’s just two steps – reflect and share.
First, ask everyone to reflect on a time when they faced seemingly insurmountable odds, but still managed to win. Everyone has faced their moment. It’s relative. You don’t have to miraculously survive an airplane disaster.
Then, invite people to share. In a large group, you can have people partner up and share with their neighbors. After a few minutes, switch. Then, invite people to share with the larger group something they heard or said that was significant to them.
It’s amazing how the energy in the room can change. When we remind ourselves of our resourcefulness and resilience, fear goes away, and confidence returns.
The cavalry isn’t about to come over the hill. No one is coming to save us. That’s okay. You’re stronger than you think. You’ve got this.
One question to ponder in your thinking time: What’s the one thing I can do, no matter how small, to make my situation better?
Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan
Co-author of The One Thing & The Millionaire Real Estate Agent
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