How to Bounce Forward, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 4 Principle 4: Bounce forward not back

After my accident I knew that what had happened to me couldn’t be just a fluke. I couldn’t be the only person in the world who had suffered a setback and used the experience to bounce forward. I knew fairly quickly that I didn’t want to bounce back to my old life — I wanted something more. They say a brush with death will do that to a person!

It didn’t seem right to me that when we were faced with the inevitable challenges of life we had only two options: we could let the challenge destroy us or diminish us in some way, or at best we could recover to a pre-crisis status quo. There had to be a third option. Many people have used adversity to propel them in a new, better direction, but these people are seen as special or unique in some way. It seemed to me that those individuals were revered but not researched; little effort was made to unpack the hallmarks of this third option. It was untouchable and out of reach to all but the chosen few. I wanted to change that.

I’m an ordinary guy. I don’t have five degrees or letters after my name and I don’t have money coming out of my ears, but I was able to bounce forward after my accident and the death of my brother, though I still miss him every day. And frankly, if I could do that then it isn’t untouchable or out of reach — it’s a legitimate third option for everyone facing difficult times.

So I became obsessed with bounce and specifically bouncing in the right direction! The more I ...