Lying on the road with a shattered leg, fractured ribs and numerous dislocations, Laura Everest’s life was turned upside down. Saving her leg was the first challenge. But being able to walk again seemed an impossibility. However Laura has incredible Mindset Resilience – a deep and enduring mental toughness which helped her literally get back on her feet.
Building Mental Resilience
How do you find the road to recovery when everything goes horribly wrong?
You might not have faced the life-changing trauma of a terrible accident like Laura, but we all encounter challenges in life that knock us down. Like physical or mental struggles, bereavement, stress, or relationship breakdown.
Developing a Mindset Resilience trains the brain to consider different options and seek a better outcome. By focusing on the best destination possible in your specific scenario, you can actively weigh up how to respond positively.
The brain believes what it hears. So if you tell yourself good things, your brain will look out for good things. Your behaviour will then proactively work towards achieving those good things. Similarly, constantly putting yourself down within your internal dialogue, negatively affects your self-belief and will reduce your confidence in your abilities.
We cannot change the experience. But what we can do, is to look for a better outcome. Then adjust our response to focus on that better outcome. Life is full of choices – and making the right choices in difficult situations will help set us on the road to recovery.
So how do you cope when you’re knocked off your feet?
Learning from Laura’s Story
Laura Everest was out running in 2013 when a car hit her and threw her down the road. She was so badly injured, it was touch and go whether she would survive. Let alone ever walk again. Yet thankfully 17 surgeries later, Laura lives and walks to tell her tale.
In her book ‘Rebuilt to Last’, Laura shares her incredible journey of mental toughness. By taking one step at a time, alongside the medical procedures, she tells how she used the power of her mind to focus on getting better. Gradually working her way back onto her feet – and believing she could do it – she amazed the medics as she left the wheelchair behind.
Laura shares the steps to develop Mindset Resilience using CliftonStrengths®. First she increased her awareness of the accident by viewing it from her strengths perspective. Through this, she equipped herself to better unravel her emotions and understand the impact. Moving forward, she then used her strengths to identify her goals and turn these intentions into actions.
Laura is an experienced CliftonStrengths® Coach and consultant. So she also describes how she’s coped with the consequences of her accident and recovery on her busy working life of travel and speaking engagements.
Coaching Resource for Mindset Resilience
Working with Laura Everest, Richard Sterry developed a new worksheet for Cascade to help leverage strengths in tough situations and build mental resilience.
In the first part of the worksheet, you reflect on the setback in question through the lens of your strengths. Each CliftonStrengths® theme will see the situation differently and have its own interpretation. So by exploring these perspectives and noting your feelings, you will increase your understanding of the reality of what happened.
Then in the second section, you consider the best possible outcome and how your strengths can help you reach that goal.
The Mindset Resilience worksheet is in the Strengths Advantage section of Cascade. It provides conversation topics for coaches to help their clients work through a challenging experience.
Rebuilt to Last
Laura’s book ‘Rebuilt to Last’ describes the amazing story of how she literally got back on to her feet after a terrible accident and walked the road to recovery with great mental resilience. Despite being faced with multiple challenges, she uses her strengths to find the determination and grit to come out smiling!
In the latter part of the book, Laura explains in simple steps the emotional patterns and techniques that helped her to flourish. They will help you too in any difficult situation you face.
Rebuilt to Last is available in paperback and Kindle formats at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk
Laura Everest
Laura Everest is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach at Laura Everest Consulting. She elevates leaders and their teams, across the world, to achieve their highest level of success. Living in Dubai with several years spent in the UK, Laura loves travelling.
Cascade Strengths Reports
The Cascade Strengths reports provide extra resources for CliftonStrengths® (formally StrengthsFinder®). Gallup Strengths Coaches benefit from the Cascade Strengths reports, saving hours of time in preparing for workshops and coaching sessions.
CliftonStrengths®
Formerly StrengthsFinder®, the CliftonStrengths® assessment identifies innate talent – how we can do things naturally well. Investing in these talents builds strengths that can be applied to our daily situations.
Gallup®, CliftonStrengths® and the 34 theme names of CliftonStrengths® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Laura! I am grateful you partnered with Richard to bring this fantastic idea to Cascade!