“Whatever doesn’t kill me … “

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Kit Conn
  • 436th Airlift Wing Safety
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  I’m sure most of us could finish this aphorism and tack on several other motivational poster-worthy sayings without much thought: “Pain is weakness leaving the body;” “No pain, no gain;” the list goes on.

Unfortunately, it just isn’t true that surviving a trauma necessarily leaves you stronger. Sure, overcoming challenges can definitely make you more ready to meet future challenges, but repeated, really negative life events turn out to be bad for your long-term wellbeing. Dr. Mark Seery of SUNY Buffalo and his colleagues at UC Irvine came to this conclusion in a study they published in 2010. The authors maintain, “Despite the familiarity of the adage that whatever does not kill us makes us stronger, the preponderance of empirical evidence seems to offer little support for it.”

Think about it; if a lion tears off your arm but leaves you alive, you’d have to seriously torture some logic to convince yourself that you’re stronger for the experience. Most likely, the event that almost killed you just made you weaker, so the next thing to come along could easily finish you off. Everyone will suffer hardships in life, and the good news is that there are ways to minimize the damage and prevent the trauma in the first place. You can limit your near-death experiences by staying resilient and managing risk.

Resilience is a reservoir – keep it full! According to the Comprehensive Airman Fitness program, resilience is, “the ability to withstand, recover and grow in the face of stressors and changing demands.” A goal of CAF is to build resilience among Airmen so we are ready to accomplish the mission in spite of adversity. Staying resilient takes work, and it’s a continuous process.

When you survive a painful but nonfatal event, know that it also depletes your resilience reservoir. CAF offers tools that your unit’s master resilience trainers can show you how to use so you can prevent a hardship from escalating into something that almost kills you. While it is important to stay resilient when things go wrong, it is even better to avoid a traumatic experience than it is to survive one. Just like CAF, risk management exists so Airmen can stay mission effective and mitigate threats.

Risk management might seem like a buzz phrase but the concept is as important as it is simple.

At its core, risk management revolves around two things: thinking ahead and learning from others’ mistakes instead of suffering them for yourself. You probably know that driving fast on an icy road is an easy way to score a mishap. When you drive slowly on such a road in order to avoid a crash, you’re managing your risk. When you see your wingman order the Nuclear hot wings and choose to avoid his fate, you’re learning from his mistake and minimizing your exposure to risk in the process. There are plenty of threats out there, and when you successfully manage risk, you make yourself a hard target. If you don’t, you’re doing the enemy’s job for them.

Not all threats are equal, and sometimes you won’t be able to manage all risks. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Risk management can be as simple as asking yourself or your wingman, “what will happen if I don’t do what I’m about to do?” The answer might save your career, your relationships, or your life.

Traumatic life events are unavoidable, and their effects are cumulative. Similarly, resilience is finite and needs constant replenishment. There are strategies to minimize and even learn from traumatic experiences but generally speaking, you are better off preventing them than you are trying to gain by them. Stay resilient, manage your risk, and endeavor to get stronger without almost getting killed.