Building Blocks of Success: Resilience

In our building blocks of success series, we tackle the various foundational blocks we believe are essential for success. Resilience is near the top of the list, because pursuing greatness almost always means you will face losses, mistakes and tough times along your journey. The ability to bounce back is so critical and we hope the stories below will inspire you to dig deep and discover more of your own resiliency.

Tammy Afriat

As Bob Proctor suggests, having a clear image of my vision helps me navigate challenges and persevere in my professional life.
I envision parents attending my workshops, leaving with smiles, thinking, “Now we get what healthy boundaries look like, how to set them realistically, and how to create a harmonious home.” This vision motivates and inspires me. 😊 Read more>>

Clarence Klingebeil

Maybe my German roots/upbringing ? A certain stiff upper lip, stoicism was encouraged. So in addition to what formed my resilience….I would say that surviving stage 4 throat cancer certainly left a mark on me, and made me more resilient no doubt, it was a game changer, it was when I was recovering from the treatments that I realized that I needed a new start with my photography, something more meaningful. Read more>>

Aly Krueger

I’d say I developed my resilience from previous DV relationships, having to start my personal training business over a few times and dropping out of college.
I’ve struggled for the majority of my life of being serial monogamist and to break the cycle of entering abusive relationships. While one or two didn’t seem to steer me away, each one did teach me a lesson. I still Loved even after each partner did me wrong. Still trusted and committed. Present time I have broken the cycle and the partner I have now is absolutely wonderful but I’m still learning to UNLEARN all the unhealthy, toxic behaviors and habits I picked Up from others. But to still stand back up after the depression and hurt and be able to love again is resilient. Read more>>

Lucy Walsh

The Director Garry Marshall once said to me, ‘Some days are life and death. If today’s not one of them, it’s a good day.’ That changed my perspective on what it means to have a bad day. So in the moments when I feel defeated, when I’m disappointed, when complaining feels good…I say Garry’s words out loud – and it reminds me that since today is a LIFE day and not a death day, I get to keep moving forward in gratitude. Read more>>

Jason Brown

Above all, my resilience comes from my faith. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” I try my best to live by this scripture. Since I was young, I’ve had to do twice the work for half the recognition. And for a while, that recognition was something I strived for no matter the cost. But I soon learned that seeking only the recognition of others will rob you of the joy that can come from acknowledging yourself and the work you’ve put in to get to where you are. Read more>>

Kikki Boinski

Thank you for asking me. To answer your question, my paternal grandmother, Dena. I never heard my dad call her mom. He called her, Molly, after the Unsinkable Molly Brown on the Titanic. She is a legend in my family and still inspires us every day. When I want to give up, I think of everything she went thru and it pushes me to keep going. I never had a relationship with my grandmother, because my mom alienated me from her. My dad maintained a relationship with his mom, us kids couldn’t. I have cousins that I was allowed to talk too, that share stories with me. They told me that my grandmother was a red head. And that she loved me very much. I have strong red highlights in my hair. I still feel, my grandmother’s love won. Read more>>

Heidi Sawyer

Throughout middle and high school, I experienced a lot of struggles regarding housing insecurity, due to a very violent home. My childhood home was very tumultuous, my only parent was in and out of entanglements with the justice system and rehabilitation, and from a young age I started living in other people’s living rooms and sometimes my car. While bad things should not have happened, and children and teens need safe homes to thrive, I knew I had to be the one to secure opportunities around me and pull myself to better circumstances. Somehow, I was able to dual enroll in both college and high school, and I even graduated valedictorian from Portal High School in 2020 (gave my speech to a camera, during COVID, for it to be posted online since we couldn’t gather for graduation).  Read more>>

Nicole D. Miller

I believe I inherited a natural level of resilience from the women in my family. So many were overcomers of various adversities and traumas. They were key examples of hard work, tenacity and resilience. The women who were up-close and personal in demonstrating this most in my life were my mother and grandmother. Both were strong women who consistently aimed to create a better life for the next generation. Both aimed to create a better life for me. Read more>>

Krista Cooper-schmidt

In any creative industry, you have to get used to rejection. This is especially true for the paths I’ve chosen to pursue – acting and writing. You have to be resilient and persistent despite any challenges thrown your way. And trust me, there will be plenty! Read more>>

Lori Colt

I fully credit my father for my optimism, kindness and resilience. Our family suffered a great deal of loss in my youth—loss of grandparents, an adopted sister, and my mother by the time I was eight. As an only child, my father rose to the occasion, despite his own sorrows, to make me feel so valued and appreciated. He was a man of faith and unconditional love. He role-modeled for me what it is to be a strong and forgiving human being. Read more>>

Angela Coffin

When you’ve faced the amount of trials I’ve faced, there’s only one place to get your resilience from–God. By the time I had met my husband at age 30, I had gone through many hardships. On the surface, it may not have seemed like I was stuck inside a mortar being ground into fine pieces, but it certainly felt that way. At the age of four, my disabled older brother passed away and around that same age, I was sexually assaulted by my neighbor. In my twenties, when I was old enough to truly understand the gravity of these traumas, I became my abuser by allowing my body to be used. As a result, depression made its home within, setting up light-blocking curtains until I reached out my hands to grab the only one who could help me. Read more>>

Jimmy Mccaffrey

I’ve suffered with mental health challenges my whole life, struggled a lot academically but was fortunate enough to have an incredible family/ support system that guided me to partake in healthy outlets for instances when my emotions were too much for me to handle. In so many cases, both art and athletics save kids. When I struggled from recurring manic episodes in my late twenties, it was my passion for art that was initially responsible for improvement and growth. My artwork and creative exploration, at a time when I had nothing else to look forward to, helped me adopt a more resilient outlook in real time. Painting helped me to stay focused and motivated rather than continuing to spiral out of control. Painting kept me grounded. Read more>>

Danny Morrison

God, my mother and my childhood neighborhood. God has brought me through some of the toughest times in my life and without him… NOTHING IS POSSIBLE. My Mom, a single parent, raised me to believe that I could accomplish anything no matter the circumstances. And my childhood neighborhood instilled a fire in my belly by showing me the perils of an impoverished neighborhood and inspired me to become an adult and work for CHANGE. Read more>>

Lauren Van Der Veen

I would say that I get my resilience from my ancestors and the strength of the culture that I was born into. It’s not easy to survive where I come from. I have often described my early life and moving to California from Chicago as a refugee story. As a child I was placed in foster care in a dangerous neighborhood and I learned to adapt in order to survive. I know many who didn’t and it’s because they absorbed their surroundings. I’ve always felt above it all, guided, conscious, I am very aware, I can even smell bullshit. In hindsight, I’ve always had a strong faith and I do choose to wake each day grateful to God.  Read more>>

Cole Rolland

That’s a great question. I’ve been very interested in the personal development/improvement space for the past decade, and I’ve learned a lot of valuable life lessons over those years. I can’t remember the exact source, but a quote that’s really stuck with me is, “If you want to become great at something, you can’t be afraid to suck at it first.” I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years, and that’s my comfort zone; however, adding singing to my skillset was much more challenging. I began incorporating my lead vocals into my original music many years into my career, and it was incredibly intimidating. Read more>>

Thea Lissi

I grew up experiencing poverty and all kinds of abuse so I think making it through those dark times as well as the challenges that came along with my dad being incarcerated when I was about 13 years old, followed by his suicide a few years later really taught me a lot and forced me to become resilient. Read more>>

Jordan Dozzi-perry

Resilience is something that I see as an innate quality of all life. The process of living, whether as a single being or in community is a process that requires a dynamic response to all sorts of inputs, beneficial or harmful. That response is an expression connected to a life’s very identity, what makes it uniquely itself. Thanks to my family, I was very fortunate to grow up around a lot of wilderness and so that natural expression of being that’s integral to resilience was emphatically on display. Seasonality alone was a wondrous display of resilience in Northeastern Canada. Winters were brutal and very much quieted the explosion of life the spring and summer brought.  Read more>>

Tef Xl

First off thank you for the opportunity to share a little about myself with your readers. Man this may be my favorite question that’s never been asked.

My resilience stems from several key experiences and qualities shaped throughout my life:

I had a challenging upbringing growing up in the streets of Jacksonville, FL (Duval County). My music, such as “The Calling,” reflects my journey, including fighting inner demons and surviving difficult challenges with street life. In my songs, you will find I often portray a mentality of perseverance, turning adversity into strength. Read more>>

Dave Collins

The name of my business, Oak & Reeds, is inspired by Aesop’s Fable, “The Oak and the Reeds.” In the story, a mighty oak tree boasts about its strength, towering over a group of seemingly weak reeds. But when a storm hits, the oak is uprooted while the flexible reeds bend with the wind and survive. The moral of the story—that resilience comes from flexibility, not brute strength—deeply resonates with me and forms the core of what we teach at Oak & Reeds. Read more>>

Natanhna Morales

I get my resilience from my inner spiritual drive! I have a spark inside me, lets call it a light. This light gives me direction on when to stay strong for myself and others. It lights up and encourages me to keep going. Growing up I lived in an environment that was unhealthy and unsafe. I had to learn to be resilient in ways to stay alive. From moments like this I become numb to things as well. I would dissociate. This made it easier for me to push on through hard times. Read more>>

Crystal Hadnott

My resilience is rooted in faith, my life experiences, and a deep sense of purpose. I’ve faced personal and professional challenges that have tested my strength—from navigating major shifts in my career to supporting my father through his battle with cancer. Each experience has taught me the power of surrendering control and trusting the process, even when the outcome is unclear. Read more>>

Kelly Sevier

I come from very humble beginnings, and a childhood that less than optimal. My saving grace was my Foster Mother. She used to tell me “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” She showed me kindness and love, and taught me resilience in the face of adversity. Read more>>

Tamika Melvin

My story of resilience starts with trusting God with the process and loving myself. Going to therapy to heal from my past trauma helped me to delve deep inside myself and know my triggers. I had to cut ties with people and things that I loved because they were holding me hostage of my past. I learned that it’s okay to start over no matter how old you are. I thought I was racing against time, but I was my own biggest enemy. Once I felt the joy of being free from others’ opinions and expectations of me, I began to evolve internally and externally. I was in a state of depression a long time because I couldn’t understand why the people I loved looked at me with envy and as a threat. All I ever wanted was to break generational curses and start a different legacy for everyone around me. However, it became draining and stressful trying to please others. Read more>>

Jini Zopf

Resilience: the ability to spring back into shape; elasticity. From my perspective, I find that resilience is developed off of a strategic use of creativity. As a designer, I’m a problem-solver. I love the practice of turning a challenge into an opportunity. From a young age, I was encouraged to lean into creative endeavors. Both my parents have design-focused thinking. Whether it was learning hand lettering or collaborating on landscape horticultural design, I was immersed in problem-solving through creativity. Read more>>

Kay Jenkins

I believe my resilience stems from a life filled with a lot of adversity starting at a very young age. Growing up in a broken home in the heart of a trailer park with a single drug addict mother and an absent father would typically set anyone up for failure as society statistics say. However I refused to be a product of my circumstances. After being taken into states custody at the age of 17 and put into an intensive group home and treatment program I learned healthy coping mechanisms and proper life skills to help set me on the right path. I was in solitary confinement for almost eighteen months before being released back into the real world. Read more>>

Meral Kat

I believe I get resilience from my life experiences. Unfortunately, I think resilience must be forced upon an individual through tough times or traumatic experiences. For me, there were several things throughout my life that each taught me to prepare for the other. Whether it being diagnosed with severe idiopathic scoliosis at the age of nine and having to wear a Milwaukee brace that was basically was a rigid body shell with a neck support for 16 hours a day most of my childhood, or whether it was my father passing away unexpectedly while I was in college, to be resilient I have to constantly remind myself that your worst days have already been behind me, and If I’ve already conquered those challenges I know I can conquer whatever is ahead. Read more>>

Rachel Gomillion

My resilience is rooted in a commitment to creating authentic, impactful change for people. Throughout my journey, I’ve seen that real progress comes from consistency, hard work, and supporting others in ways that matter. This drive motivates me, especially during challenges at TRVFIT Berkley, where we focus on addressing people’s needs in a way that makes a difference. Every experience—whether guiding members through life-changing transformations, empowering coaches to reach their potential, or overcoming obstacles to better serve our community—deepens my resilience. Read more>>

Addison Hanson

Since my leukemia diagnosis in 2018, remaining resilient has been crucial to my everyday life. That’s not to say that every day I feel as resilient as the last, it’s definitely an ebb and flow depending on many factors; ie how bad the daily symptoms are, how that affects my quality of life and ability to do what I love, how/if it disrupts my relationships with loved ones. A lot of what keeps me resilient is my consistent hope for the future and focusing on what sparks joy and brings meaning to what has generally been a fairly confusing existence for me. Read more>>

Tracy Lund

My resilience comes from my mom, who was the strongest and most independent person I’ve known. From the beginning, she instilled in me the belief that I could overcome any challenge. She was the kind of person who never backed down, even when life got hard, and watching her inspired me to adopt that same strength. Growing up with her example showed me that resilience isn’t just about getting through tough times—it’s about finding purpose and learning along the way. Every time I face a difficult moment, I can almost hear her voice telling me “You can do anything you set your mind too”. She taught me that resilience is more than just enduring; it’s a commitment to living fully and facing life head-on, no matter what. Read more>>