Think we're having a bad day?

I’ve been in Australia for the last week, so was drawn to some local resilience stories. This one stood out so much that I wanted to share it with readers from around the world.

Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I can’t help but complain. It’s usually when I’m exhausted, sick, or just hit with one frustration after another. It’s also when I find myself playing the victim role, aka “of course this happens to me.” 

And then I take a breath and remind myself that I really have nothing to complain about. Because that’s when I remember the stories of people like Turia Pitt.

Suddenly my “bad day” doesn’t seem so bad.

In early September 2011, Turia was 25 years old and running a 100km ultra-marathon in the Kimberley region. It’s one of the most remote, rugged parts of Australia. She was fit, ambitious, and successful - a mining engineer and athlete with a bright future ahead.

Within minutes, everything changed.

A bushfire swept through the area and she was caught in it’s path. There was no escape and the flames engulfed her, ripping through her life in a way most of us can’t even imagine.

Turia sustained extreme burns to 65% of her body.

65%!

She was air-lifted out, placed in a medically-induced coma and would undergo over 200 operations that included amputations, skin grafts, and facial reconstructions.

And then, of course, there was the recovery.

She needed to relearn how to stand, raise her arms, how to walk. All of the things we take for granted each day.

“If you want me to do something, all you have to do is tell me that it can’t be done!” - Turia Pitt

Throughout her recovery, Turia didn’t sugarcoat anything. She had to accept the brutal reality of her injuries and welcomed whatever that meant to her new identity.

That meant she had to find a way to build upward, one micro-win at a time. It required exceptional patience to relearn how to walk and she fought an emotional battle with herself everyday just to show up again and again, even when it felt pointless.

She got there though. It was tiny progress, small wins, and the hardest kind of resilience where progress is so tiny that we simply have to trust the process. Reminds me of bamboo.

This is the sort of stuff we never post on Instagram. The 72 failures before we finally make it work. But those 72 attempts are how we shine again. That’s how we rebuild after our own version of “65% burned.”

And, once she was on her way to recovery, Turia didn’t stop. She turned her focus outward by writing, speaking, coaching and training! She completed an Ironman competition and trekked the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea. She also became a bestselling author and a voice of purpose and possibility.

Turia is the real-life woman born from fire, because part of this amazing story is the fact she didn’t try to return to who she was. She was more focused on who she could become. And often, when it comes to resilience, there’s a moment in every major setback where we realize the old version of us is gone. That’s what gives us permission to rebuild with intention.

The most powerful mindset shift

Most of us don’t get hit by a literal bushfire, but we do get burned. It happens in both life and business when a project collapses, a job evaporates, or a relationship fractures. It’s a heavy feeling that can come from nowhere and smash our confidence.

Sometimes the instinct is to fight the loss, wish it away, or cling to an older version of ourselves. But the far more powerful move is an acceptance without defeat. That’s the mindset shift and reset that allows us to reclaim our agency so that we can choose what we need to do next.

Here are three tools inspired by Turia’s journey.

1. Map our 65%. If 65% of our work, identity, or routine was burned away tomorrow, what would we cling to and what would we let go? The answer provides clarity on who we are. Turia’s mindset was one of immense gratitude for what she had left. In fact, she focused on the things she could do, rather than the things she could not do. That focus on the strengths within her was the momentum she needed to gradually rebuild the rest of her. This is the undeniable power of gratitude. It’s slow, but goddam it works!

2. Celebrate micro-wins. We can’t get to the end goal with one giant leap. In fact, that huge project or massive launch is just one long list of small achievements in a certain order. When we break down the challenge ahead into small steps, then we give ourselves these micro-wins that help us build confidence and resilience. When things feel impossible, let’s celebrate the small victories.

3. Embrace the pivot. Turia went from mining engineer to speaker, writer, and athlete. She lost so much of her original identity, but she found a new path forward that she could never have predicted. She grew as a result of the pain, which is a wonderful example of bouncing forward instead of just bouncing back. In order to do this, we can’t fear failure or hardship. Instead, we must see it as the opportunity for something special.

When someone tells me they’re having a rough day, I get it. We’re dealing with a lot of challenges right now and people are overwhelmed.

But I find it energizing to think of the Turia’s of the world. The fire, the grit, the recovery and the rebuild. Her story reminds us that resilience is not a personality trait, but rather a practice. Something we can all commit to when we choose growth over bitterness.

Until next time friends, stay resilient.

Carré @ Resilient Minds