Mitch Matthews | PTG: Posttramatic Growth

Welcome to Dream. Think. Do. It’s great to be back – we’ve been on hiatus for a couple of weeks making a few changes...and I think you’ll like what we’ve done with the place! Listen To The Podcast: I’ll start off with some exciting news — that actually you are a major part of. We've been digging into the numbers and I discovered we’re in the top five percent of all podcasts! How cool is that? And it’s because of YOU! I know you really do believe in helping people to dream bigger, think better, and do more...do more of the stuff they were put on the planet to do. So thanks for sharing my podcast with your friends and colleagues and spreading the word! I’m grateful for you. I'm grateful that you're listening in today. I'm grateful that you're part of the Dream. Think. Do. movement...and together… we're making an impact by reaching people around the world. I couldn't do it without you. So for today...I'm going to share a term with you and its impact on me, but I'm also going to share some strategies with you that have helped me in big, big ways. I was recently listing to an audiobook from one of my favorite authors, Shawn Achor. It’s called BIG POTENTIAL - a great book with some really good psychological insight. One term that really struck me is what Shawn calls “Posttraumatic Growth”.  PTG basically boils down to A POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHANGE EXPERIENCED AS THE RESULT OF ADVERSITY leading to a higher level of functioning. Post-traumatic growth is not about returning to the same life as it was previously experienced before a period of traumatic suffering. Rather, it is about undergoing significant life changing psychological shifts in thinking and relating to the world in a way that contributes to a deep personal process of change. This concept of learning from challenging circumstances isn't necessarily a new idea. In fact, it's interesting — I wasn't preparing for this episode...I was just doing my morning rituals yesterday and was having some quiet time. I was enjoying a cup of coffee, reading, and praying. I was journaling and had picked up where I had left off in the Bible, the New Testament, in the book of Romans. You might be familiar with it, but there I was...I wasn't doing research for the episode. I was just doing my morning thing and I kind of picked up where I had been reading before, but then I came across Romans chapter five specifically. And it said we can rejoice to when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us to develop endurance — and endurance develops strength of character — and the character strengthens our confidence, hope, and salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. Now that was written a couple thousand years ago. And here, Paul, is basically talking about Posttraumatic growth — a new term to describe something that's obviously been around for centuries, if not since the beginning of time, right? Because we all have challenges, some of us more than others, but it's one of those things that sometimes we're in the thick of it and it can be extra challenging sometimes. I don't know about you, but some seasons in life just seem straight up, more challenging than others. There are those seasons, maybe short, maybe long. And then sometimes...everything's clicking. It seems easy. You can almost coast and everything is smooth sailing. But I have to admit, and I'm guessing since you're a Dream. Think. Doer...you'll get this...because sometimes if I experience  an easy stretch for too long, I almost wonder, “Am I really pushing myself?” Because when we go after dreams, when we go after things that we want to do or experience or achieve, whether we're stretching at work, whether we're stretching at home, whether we're stretching ourselves in relationships, if we're pushing for a dream, if we're going after it to make things happen, there are going to be rough spots, right?