I think this is such a timely book and one I can't wait to read and share. As Sheryl says, the stories inside the book, as well as her own "reveal the capacity of the human spirit not only to persevere . . . but to rediscover joy."
"A few weeks after my husband Dave died, I was talking to my friend Philip Deutch about a father-son activity that Dave was not here to do. We came up with a plan for someone to fill in so my son would not have to miss out. I cried, “But I want Dave.” Phil put his arm around me and said, “Option A is not available. So let’s just kick the shit out of Option B.”
That became my mantra, and for the past two years I’ve tried hard to find meaning and happiness in the wake of our despair. My friend Adam Grant, a psychologist, told me that we are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. Like a muscle, we can build it. Adam and I set out to explore how to build resilience—in ourselves, in our children, in our relationships, and in our workplaces and communities.
Option B is our attempt to share what we’ve learned. Part of the book comes from my personal experience and my journals, and part comes from the work Adam and other psychologists have done on resilience. We also include stories of people we’ve met who have braved many different kinds of adversity—from job loss to illness to abuse to everyday setbacks and disappointments. These stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit not only to persevere . . . but to rediscover joy.
I am so grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey. To the strangers who responded to the Facebook post I wrote 30 days after I lost Dave, sharing their own struggles and offering support to me and to one another. To the researchers whose life’s work is trying to understand ways we can all find strength and move forward. To the friends and family and colleagues who showed up over and over. To those in the book who opened up about their own hardships. On days that I feel weak, I draw strength and hope from their example.
Because no one’s life is perfect, we all live some form of Option B. It’s my deepest hope that Option B will help others learn what I learned: that when life pulls you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface, and breathe again." Sheryl Sandberg
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She gets all the social listening in the world to rifle through 😜
Danielle Newnham Podcast