The Bridge – Episode 5

When we think about what it takes to really create this new world, flesh it out, and help people understand it, there are really four things that we need to do.

The first is we have to engage in training and education. We have to teach people about the practices and principles of Posttraumatic Growth in a way that they can be meaningfully integrated into each of our lives. All of us need to bring this to bear in our world and in our lives. There’s this idea, and a quote by a lady named Mandy Piper: you have to know Posttraumatic Growth exists in order for it to happen. You have to know it’s okay for good things to happen after really bad things. A big part of training and education is helping shape people’s perspective—allowing them to recognize they have a choice. They have a choice. There’s a sense of hope and agency and direction that comes from the world we’re trying to create.

The second thing we have to do is really cultivate a sense of community and leverage the power of technology to continue to reinforce key ideas—but also the fact that we can use technology to help create a sense of community. Because it can, at times, feel lonely. It can feel like you’re someone speaking a foreign language in a world characterized by the Ds of diagnosis, dysfunction, disorder, and disconnection. It can be difficult when you walk around thinking, “Gosh, I think about the world completely differently from everyone else,” and that can sometimes be a lonely place. So us PTGs have to stick together and stay connected.

The third thing we have to do is measure everything we do. We have to understand that what we’re doing is making a meaningful difference. No matter what program, in some form or fashion, we ask you for your thoughts and perspective because we’re trying to learn from you—and about you.

And the fourth thing we have to do is to fundamentally change our society. We do that by making films, by injecting messages, by providing speeches—to create a world where we’re fundamentally trying to shift the tone.

At the core of this—and I have my phone in front of me—is a quote I was recently reflecting on. It’s by a priest, or a pastor, named Charles Swindoll. Swindoll said this: “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures and successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skills. It will make or break a company, a church, a home.” It will make or break a company, a church, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have—and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes. And if we live in a world that is constantly shaping a negative attitude—a victim-oriented attitude, an attitude that is framed in negativity and notions of diminishment and diagnosis and dysfunction—guess what our attitude’s going to be? It’s going to be shitty. It’s going to be a shitty attitude.

Therefore, if you believe that where your attention goes, your power goes, then everything we see that is negative will only be amplified. On the counter to that—if you realize that everyone’s life is filled with struggle and stress and hardship and trauma—and it is incumbent upon each of us to find meaning in those, to find purpose in those, to transform struggle into strength and growth, then we can shift that attitude. To having an attitude of gratitude and appreciation and realism and a point of hope that we can bring to bear in every encounter we have in our lives.

That is our challenge. That is what each of us have to do. And it is incumbent upon us at Boulder Crest to use every avenue we can to try to help people realize that they have a choice—a choice to decide whether to go down the track of the D or the track of the G.

And ultimately, you know what we want you to choose. And each of us have to make that choice—not just for ourselves, but for all of the people we influence and impact.