In case you thought the recession has dampened our generation of womens’ spirits, guess again. If anything, a sneak peak at the results of our latest VibrantNation.com survey reveals that our coping strategies and belief systems are reaching new levels of effectiveness in the face of heightened challenge and change. (Tune in for Stephen Reily’s official report on the Resilence Survey Results next week.)
To wit, observing the online interactions amongst the members of the Vibrant Nation community, it will come as no surprise that nearly 8 out of 10 of us report that “the older I get, the more resilient I become.”
Not that we aren’t being tested. For instance, the majority of us report that we are less optimistic in regards to our expectations about the future than we used to be. But with maturation, we are taking even this sobering dose of reality in stride. For example, amongst the majority of us who reported that we are less optimistic in regards to our expectations about the future, over half reveal that this is not an issue of concern. In fact, the majority of us “accept this.”
Drilling down more deeply, we begin to get a picture of the belief set that can allow resilience and eroded optimism to co-exist in what is emerging as the dominant psycho-spiritual ethos of respondents. In fact, many of this generation of women who have demonstrated repeatedly their ability to reinvent themselves in the face of challenge and change, are retooling their belief set at the deepest levels.
There appears, for starters, to be a move away from popular formulations of positive thinking. For instance, twice as many respondents believe that they “might influence the things that happen to and for them, the ultimate outcome is in God’s hands” than believe that they “create their reality and that if they think positively, they will get what they’re asking for.””
While many in the Vibrant Nation community have been (and continue to be) influenced by positive thinking, it is a sign of the times that the book that has been recently getting a lot of buzz is Barbara Ehrenreich’s just published “Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.” Ehrenreich traces the roots of new age spirituality to the motivational popularism of such American classics as “Think and Grow Rich,” the book that urged previous generations to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and apply themselves self single-mindedly to the achievement of the American dream.
Looking ahead to Stephen’s upcoming survey report, the numbers will reveal that in the face of recession, even the American dream is in reinvention mode. But in keeping with our generation of womens’ tradition of scrappy adaptation and resourcefulness, there is cause to celebrate that whether our optimism is eroded or our positive thinking continues intact, our resilience continues to expand.
Agreed. I never thought I was vain until I had a mastectomy at age 39. I was devastated and told the doc I wanted to wake up with implants. Now at age 60, I am lopsided and wondering if I was just avoiding the inevitable. You get what you get and you
Sounds very interesting.
Spike, you are awesome! Love your perspective, thanks for sharing.
This is indeed fascinating. As I do not have time now to read this book, I will add it to my amazon wish list (for after a thesis is written). Will the report be sent as a “reminder” to us from Vibrant Nation?
A book I have plowed through recently is “The Talent Code” – riveting. About how talent can be taught with immediate application to mistake-changes. I suggest it highly. (why did I have time to read that book??).
The Talent Code notion–i recall that was how I was taught “experimental” Algebra in the 7th grade–immediate self-revelation and opportunity to correct…
I’m certain that if you’re a member and/or on RSS feed for our blogs, (And of course, following this conversation) you’ll get the official results, perhaps multiple times. We’re very excited–and planning a release on our findings to the media next week.