Turning Tough Times Into Triumph

On a flight home from a trip last week I had a chance to read a great book called "Bounce - The Art of Turning Tough Times Into Triumph".  If you're like me, facing the economic crunch and issues of the day, including the bittersweet holiday season.... you can probably relate to the challenge of triumphing over tough times.
Let me highlight a few passages in the book to give you some food for thought --

"It's often during life's most difficult times that we discover our most critical hidden strengths and that we forge our most important capabilities."
So, I guess we need to look at the silverlining during our tough times, huh?  It allows our strengths and capabilities to surface.  If we didn't go through these times, we may never know we had them.  Apparently tough times are good for us......

"The significant problems we are facing cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."  Albert Einstein
So, I guess we need to "think outside the box".  We might have to get creative to solve some of these issues.  Who knows, we might create an entirely "new world" or paradigm that takes us to a new level.

"Hold hands in traffic"
People naturally want to blame someone other than themselves in times of crisis.  This phrase serves to remind us that it is in difficult times that we most need one another and most need to stick together.  We have to remember that we're in control of how we respond to a situation.  We shouldn't blame outside forces.  We need to focus on attacking our problems and not one another.

"It takes pressure to get people out of their comfort zone to change.  Any meaningful change is painful, which causes people to naturally start to feel anxious"
The book relayed that the key to anxiety is focusing on the correct anxiety.  There are two types of anxiety -- one is caused by the fear of change, while the other is the fear of what will happen to you if you don't change.

Just some food for thought...... I hope you triumph over your tough times, if that's where you are right now.  I know that's my goal.