THE SIX DOMAINS OF RESILIENCE

If you are new to Odyssey Resilience, welcome to the party!

If you are reading this you have either been sent our newsletter or you are checking out our website. We want to give you a brief walk through of the model behind our coaching. This is two fold; first, so you understand why we talk the way we do and secondly, so you can see if we are a fit for what you are looking to accomplish. We can start with the vision for Odyssey, the core values we are built upon and then we will break down the six domains of resilience, the framework of all of our coaching. 

Odyssey Resilience was created to help as many people as possible reach the best version of themselves, mentally, physically, emotionally and morally. We focus on implementable, repeatable processes that you can utilize your entire life, not just while working with us. We understand that our coaching might not be for everyone, that being said we also know if we can help people find and pursue meaningful, useful and productive habits those people will affect millions of others. 

Now to the domains. There are six, which we utilize in our PR6 exam, when you begin working with us. Vision, Composure, Reasoning, Health, Tenacity and Collaboration. We believe that each human is an amazing combination of each and can, through intentional work, develop each domain to enhance their talents, abilities, and relationships both personal and professional. We wanted to walk you through each domain so you have an understanding of what each means and how they correlate.

Vision

One question we get regularly is “what should my goal be”. This is a really good question, however, without a vision we are putting the cart before the horse. We have all heard that you have to find your “why” before you start and I think that concept is phenomenal, however the water is a bit muddied around this concept. The concept is, your “why” is the ultimate reason we are doing what we are doing. Say you are opening up a donut shop, why the heck are you doing it? To make donuts? Ok, cool, all you have to focus on is the process of making dough, frying it and applying whatever topping or toppings go on it. Then put that little round piece of heaven in a display case and wait for customers to come buy it. However we all know it is a little more complicated than just building a widget and then waiting for buyers. We have to give a story. We have to give people a reason to come by our shop and buy the donut. First and foremost we have to understand why the hell we opened the shop in the first place. Why we took the job as a financial planner, car salesman, CEO, whatever it might be we need to explain to ourselves why the heck we made this move. The why is bigger than the consumers call to action. It is the call to action for the days we don’t want to get up, the rainy, shitty, fog filled days that make you wanna roll over and go back to sleep. The days bills pile up and you are short on cash or the reason you make one more phone call. This is why we call it a vision. Why the hell are we here doing what we are doing and for what reason? Maybe we opened up the donut shot because we hate working for other people and know we can only stand working around ourselves and a close one or two others. Maybe we opened it up because we have kiddos and want to leave them something that can help them generate income later in life. Maybe it's the legacy we are after, leaving behind a name and stability for generations to come. Whatever the vision is we have to find that first. Imagine standing at the bottom of a huge mountain. When you look up you see a sprawling, massive section of earth. Trees grow out of it at the base and part of the way up, after the trees there are jagged rocks, and little to no growth. After that the snow starts, it eventually builds up so high that you can't see any rocks, just giant snow drifts that look like they are miles up. The higher up you look the more distance you realize is between where your eyes land and you. Eventually you can’t see anymore, the clouds block the top. Now, even without seeing the top you can imagine what it would look like. Based on all the information you gather by looking at this mountain you can visualize what the peak would look, feel and sound like. This visualization is what we want to utilize when we create your vision for your life. What is it going to look like when you are on your deathbed, looking back at your life. What do you want to say you accomplished? Where do you want to have lived? What do you want others to say about your life? Once we establish a few things through some intentional questioning the action starts. We simply reverse engineer the peak back down to where you are at basecamp. We mark specific large things that have to be accomplished to achieve this vision, then we break each down into smaller and small parts. This gives you action items. These action items are our goals. This way when we talk about goals we have purpose behind them. They are no longer arbitrary and because they have meaning and purpose they become doable. No matter the weather, time, season or pain, you are driven to accomplish them. Being able to see why we do what we do and understand that each goal is just a stair step up this mountain makes daily life more meaningful. We can be passionate about the small things because it all has purpose. 

Composure

Your vision is like a filter. A filter for all decisions and actions. You now see where you are going and where you want to end up, this knowledge will undoubtedly change some things in your life. Just because we understand where we want to end up and have a plan to get there doesn't mean everyone we are around, live with or love understands that. This is where composure comes in. Composure is our ability to remain in control of our emotions no matter the circumstances. No matter what life throws at you, you can control yourself so as not to derail your progress or harm others. Getting to your goal is great, destroying relationships on the way is not. Every interaction is useful data. This data we consume allows us to understand the people we are around better but it is also a phenomenal set of data on how we operate. Being frustrated, angry, annoyed, pissed or even sad from what someone has said or done is a great set of data. You need to know what affects you at an emotional level because emotions are energy in motion. You have no ability to separate yourself from emotions but we can learn to understand what they are telling us. If we are lit on fire by someone by their mere existence, which isn’t actually all that uncommon, we need to take a few minutes and figure out why that happens. What did they do? What did or do they say that makes me wanna introduce my fist to their mouth? This knowledge is paramount for several reasons. We need to know how to take control of our own minds. We need to know what statements or situations light us up and why (what core value of yours are they stomping on) and worst case scenario what people, places, and things should you avoid all together. Avoiding is the last and worst case. We do not want to coach people into avoidance, it is not useful in the least. However, in some very specific cases it's needed. We want you to be able to see yourself from the outside. Your body is a giant, extremely complex, defence mechanism. It is built with millions of years of trial and error, and only the best at avoiding potential pain and injury survived to eventually make you. You are a product of all those before you. Our coaching goes into how our brian operates in two systems, the limbic and prefrontal cortex. Our limbic system controls the fight, flight or freeze response in our body, the prefrontal cortex controls critical thinking skills and utilizes our actual lived experience to make decisions. We can learn how to limit or restrain the limbic system and utilize the prefrontal cortex in intense situations through breathing exercise, reality testing and emotional awareness. Composure domain is where we help individuals understand emotions, the damage they can cause and how we can learn how to control them. 

Reasoning

This is a really interesting domain. We learn how to put our vision, goals and passions up against the world we are living in. Because we can’t see the top of the mountain we need to understand this is just an image we conjured up using a picture of our current reality mixed with what we want it to become. We use reason to work our way through reverse engineering our goals and building steps up the mountain. We understand our current abilities and talents and with a little bit of deductive reasoning we can see ourselves growing those talents and abilities up to where we can achieve the vision. The talents we have will naturally grow as we live our life, our skills however take more intentional action. Learning to reason our way through the information we receive is the difference between being humble enough to learn and grow and staying stagnant and withering away. If we are not able to reason through information we receive, we will end up taking everything at face value and it's the intent we should judge others actions on, not the outcome. This would allow us to give far more grace to those who need it and be far more diligent at protecting ourselves from people that don’t. This skill helps us see that the person we see at the “end” is not real yet. We have to build that person by daily intentional action. 

Health

This one is easy. Your body is a direct reflection of how you feed it, train it and talk to it. This is the simplest thing for us to take control of but is the hardest one for most of us to get on board with. We own all the variables presented to us within this system. We choose to eat what we eat, watch what we watch and consume what we consume. Poor choices equal poor outcomes. Cool thing is it usually is a matter of more guidance than it is an inability to make good decisions. We don’t have the ability to say “we didn’t know” about most things nowadays. We have an abundance of knowledge being thrown at us constantly through social media, the news, tv and our relationships. The issue is we need to know how to filter it all out to something useful and repeatable. I am going out on a limb here and say that about 90% of diets and training routines out there work to some capacity. The issue isn't the program, it's the implementation of the program. How do we actually do what we know we should do? I get a kick out of all the “Stop doing this” shit on the news and social media. I think we have argued about eggs for over a century now. One week they are healthy, one week they are the worst thing ever and if they are in your fridge your first born is gonna die from syphilis. It’s all way over the top. So we focus on useful information, not fear mongering. If it grows from the earth or at one time ate from the earth you're good to go. A healthy body is a force to be reckoned with. We are here to help you become formidable, passionate and focused. Being the best version of yourself has to involve your physical strength, fortitude and food intake. Without a healthy body, the journey up the mountain is near impossible. 

Tenacity

“Hold Fast” is an old sailor jargon that used to be tattooed on the fingers of those brave enough to tangle with Poseidon on their journey across the ocean. This tattoo reminded the sailors that their job was to do their job to the best of their ability. Doing their job their best, and relying on others to do theirs made any adventure possible. They could make it through the worst the sea could provide if they hold fast to their duty. We focus on this as a way to pull the previous domains together. Contrary to some coaching firms or other leaders, we understand that adversity is never going away. We, until we die, live on earth around people. Part of living on earth around people means we will have controversy. We need to understand that these speed bumps of life are not bad, in fact they are good for us. They help direct, redirect and focus our energy. If we focus on holding fast to our vision our goals are allowed to change as life does beneath our feet. If you set a vision, then after you start your journey you get married and have kiddos you need to know how to reevaluate while not deviating from the course. Tenacity is our ability to hold fast while being liquid enough to know when and where we need to alter our path. 

Collaboration

One quote that has followed me through my life is “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”. The individuals we choose to spend time with build our reality, our expectations that we have for ourselves and our drive to achieve those expectations. We are social creatures and need to be part of a group. We will strive for connection even to our detriment. Because we are built this way doesn't mean we have to be a slave to it. We can learn how to establish healthy boundaries with loved ones and family, and on the extreme end we can build up the confidence to remove certain ones from our life all together. Collaboration is crucial to our success and happiness. This is the last domain for a reason. We have to have a firm understanding of ourselves, our vision, goals, abilities, and talents before we can understand who we need to have in our lives. People are in our lives for a reason or a season. This is not to say that we are the main character in life and everyone else is just a secondary. This is to point out the one true fact that all of our training accumulates too. You are the only one who can save yourself. No one else is going to come save you.

If you want a better life, if you want a healthier body, if you want better relationships, you have to take that step. You have to take control. We are here to help you learn how to do that.