Karen Reivich

Hypothetically, let’s say you have a problem. It doesn’t really matter how it happened, we all have them to some degree. However, some people seem blessed with the ability to cope with anything that life throws their way. Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte have both spent their careers studying the unique quality that these people have tempered in order to survive and thrive.

This book is a fascinating one, it covers a topic that is near and dear to many, especially in our crazy, fast-paced show more modern world. We may be stagnating at work, maybe a relationship with a spouse or significant other is losing its magic, maybe your kids mystify you since they suddenly became different people overnight, or perhaps it is something else that throws you off. This book prepares you for life’s troubles.

The Resilience Factor opens with one of many relatable stories with our focus on a guy named Robert. Robert is living the American Dream; he has a fulfilling job, a beautiful wife, and three children. Unfortunately, things have been getting him down recently. His youngest child was diagnosed with ADHD, his middle daughter used to be vivacious and lively but has now become a teenager which makes her sullen and monotone. His eldest child is out until midnight some nights doing who knows what with strangers. His job has become a place where he puts out random fires, and rumor has it that downsizing is in the works. His relationship with his wife is on the rocks since he barely has any time to spend with her.

The major content of the book begins with a quiz to quantify your current level of resilience after which it discusses the techniques to increase it. The main idea is to reframe the events that happen to you. There is more to it than that, but I don’t really want to write any more redundant sentences.

So all in all, this book was pretty interesting. show less

The concepts are good. It seems that most of the methods described would work best with two people at least to start. It also feels like the ideas are stretched in some cases and shortened in other instances. The flow is not smooth.

The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life's Hurdles
by Karen Reivich, Andrew Shatte

Their model is made up of the following 7 scores:

emotional regulation;
impulse control;
optimism;
causal analysis;
empathy;
self efficacy;
reaching out (i.e. not being afraid of making mistakes/not thinking it's better to not act then act and fail).

It might be really interesting to get our neets/families to complete the self-completion test from the book, and validate show more a hypothesis about the correlation between resilience quotient and social circumstances... Or maybe not! show less