Julie Harrelson - Why Setbacks are the Doorway to Resilience

Um, so, okay, so I found this topic interesting in a couple of different, from a couple of different angles.

One is just overall, in general, as people, as a human, I found it, uh, fascinating.

But also, uh, I found it, found it fascinating because I think it applies to the world that most of my audience, uh, falls into.

Whether it's entrepreneurs or whether it's people in the corporate world, um, this impacts them as well.

And I'm not saying that it impacts them in a special way, but it's, it's, it's the, it's the people or the type of person that I know best, uh, in terms of, uh, especially in terms of my audience.

Um, and this is just the concept of daily grief, um, and, and these small losses, and which could also be big losses.

But let me ask you to kinda describe a little bit about, um, what you, what our discussion is today, which is kind of born out of a TED Talk that you did.

Right.

Sure.

Um, so here, so here's the thing I think is-- sums it up.

So I was talking to one of my investors, and I was telling him about the TED Talk, and he said, "You're talking about grief.

I thought you'd be talking about money." [both chuckling] And I, and I realized that for, for me, the work that I've done over the years has all been really very human.

And whether we're entrepreneurs, executives, uh, small business people, and those are the people that I know the best as well in terms of my work life, um, it, it is really difficult to navigate life, and I think it's difficult to access joy if we don't really understand how to access and process grief.

And most of the conversations that I have with people aren't necessarily about completely tragic grief, right? Like, that's a, that's a thing in and of itself.

But what I was talking more about was daily grief.

Like other people-- In my talk, I say, you know, other people at dinner parties talk about, you know, food and movies and travel and their, and their kids.

And I'm like, "How are you dealing with unmet expectations, and have you planned for the end of your life?" [both chuckling] You know? And my, my spouse laughs about it all the time because, you know, I'm very interested in kinda going to the core of what motivates people because I think in order to be effective leaders or the kind of leaders that I admire, um, we have to have access, um, to a fuller range of life experience.

And grief is a doorway to walk through, whether it's a simple thing like You lost your fa-- you know, a favorite object, or you're dealing with aging parents, or you have, uh, financial challenges, or you're an empty nester.

Those are, you know, those feelings a-as a person are-- that, that is grief, that is sadness.

And I just feel like if we know how to walk through that door a little bit, we'll, we'll be able to experience a broader feeling of satisfaction and happiness when we have those moments as well.

And there's a couple concepts I built the talk on that I, I'm sure we'll get into.

Um, but that, that would be my starting, uh, salvo as far as why I did the talk and what it's about.