Last Friday was International Women’s Day and I loved seeing all the social media posts of strong women. Like the “Fearless Girl” bronze statue that stands proudly at Bowling Green down in the Financial District of Wall Street, women from all over the world were expressing how they are standing up for their beliefs and actions. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy’s 2012 TED talk on “power posing” has garnered over 50 million views. Her message was simple. Our body language affects...

We attended a local college dance recital last weekend and as I was waiting for the show to begin, I overheard a conversation a few rows ahead of me. Seems that a student was introducing herself to one of the professors sitting nearby. As he asked her about her background, she responded, “Oh, I’m just a freshman,” she said, and I loved his response. “Just a freshman,” he stated, “I consider freshman to be our most important students. They bring...

Maybe you have a big presentation coming up and you are really nervous that you might bomb. Perhaps you are coming up to a deadline for a major project and you’re scared that you won’t finish it on time. What if you are in a tennis league and you’ve made it further in the annual tournament than you ever have before and are panicky about your upcoming match? All these fears have one logical, fearful component that has you rattled....

My friend Lynn had an unexpected family emergency and given some difficulties with airline connections, she decided to drive the 9 hours to her destination. When I saw her the day before she left, she was not particularly excited about the drive but the next afternoon, I received the following text from her. “Hey Rich, how is this for resilience; I decided that I often work a 9-hour day with only short breaks and so my job today was just...

Our modern-day version of Valentine’s Day is all about expressing love for those closest to us as well as maybe passing around a bit more of it in the world. As you finalize tomorrow’s rituals and routines make certain that you don’t forget that very special person in your life who needs your love and attention more than anyone—Yourself. It’s easy to share love with others but maybe not so much ourselves. Our negativity bias usually finds what is wrong...

I heard from a number of people last week about whether the canceled schools, closed coffee shops and businesses, delayed mail delivery and (OMG) neglected beer drop-offs at neighborhood bars was a sign that we’ve all become weak and overly coddled. I pushed back on this even though I discuss the fact in The Resilience Advantage that there is research about how children are more shielded from risk today than in previous times with the result being that they may...