When AT&T was broken up years ago, Salvatore Maddi and Deborah Khoshaba did a longitudinal study of the employees at Illinois Bell Telephone. They followed these folks for years and found that there was a set of characteristics that were common to the folks that did well. Those without the characteristics they described, did not do so well. They experienced more performance issues, conduct problems and a deterioration of their health. It turns out that only one third of the people excelled in two thirds of them did not do well. Let's take look at what separated the groups.

Those that excelled demonstrated three key attitudes. They showed commitment, control, and challenge. Maddi and Khoshaba described these as the three C's. They describe them as follows:

"What we called commitment was a predisposition to be involved with people, things, and contexts rather than be detached, isolated, or alienated. Control involved struggling to have an influence on outcomes going on around oneself, rather than sinking into passivity and powerlessness. Challenge signified wanting to learn continually from one's experience, whether positive or negative, rather than playing it safe by avoiding uncertainties and potential threats." (Maddi, S. R. (2002). "The story of hardiness: Twenty years of theorizing, research, and practice." Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Vol. 54, No. 3, 175–185 54(3): 175-185.)

There is a hardiness survey called the HardySurvey that you can take at the Hardiness Institute Website. There is a cost for it but it will give you some insights that may save your job.

Seth Godin recently posted a 45 minute master class session on his blog that is well worth the 45 minute investment! He discusses the barriers that keep us from taking risks and being successful. He is primarily talking about "business" but many of the concepts that he presents apply equally as well to overcoming the difficulties that you are facing in your personal life. If you want to leave a legacy despite the challenges that you are facing, grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and listen to this:

After listening...

Melanie Thomas put this show together. She has some tremendous photos that I just saw for the first time today. Mel was a wonderful member of the Medical Teams International team that was on the ground in the early response to the earthquake. She spent a bunch of time at King's Hospital sorting out the supplies and organizing the supplies that came in. She is one of the type of people that doesn't scramble to get in the limelight. She just gets busy doing the tasks at hand. Wow, did she work hard! She was such a blessing to the team! The show that she put together will move you and bless you. After watching it, please consider the questions that I've posted for you by clicking "read more" below.

Here are a couple of questions to get the discussion going:

I just came across this broadcast from AM Northwest featuring two of our team members, Journalist David Michael Smith and Physical Therapist Kathi McCoy:

Now the tears are starting to flow in Haiti.

Photo: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

When I was there originally the entire country appeared to be numb. They had to be; they were in survival mode. Now, according to a fantastic article by the New York Times entitled "Haiti Emerges From Its Shock, and Tears Roll", the emotions are finally starting to surface. I would encourage you to read the article and ponder it. It is good for us to stop and think about these thing and what we value. I know that I certainly look at things differently after returning from Haiti. I'm no longer having such intense dreams but I'm thinking a lot about what's important.

These are some of the photos of my experience on the front lines of Haiti during the first couple of weeks after the earthquake. (Warning: some of these are graphic.)

Since I've returned, a lot of folks have asked me how they can help. If you text the word "HOPE" to 25383 it will send $10 to the folks at Medical Teams International (you can do it more than once if you like). If you would like to donate a larger amount, please visit their site at www.medicalteams.org. Thank you to all of you that have supported the work in Haiti. My biggest fear is that we will move on and forget. There is such a tremendous need. I'm still having dreams every night.

Roads are beyond horrible and this passage has been tedious and painful.  We are four hours outside Port au Prince and just received word that Pastor Devarese's wife is dying at the UN hospital in Port au Prince due to complications from her compound fracture of her leg.  She has maggots (can be good because it keeps the wound clean) but she is having renal failure.  We are praying and driving while we are trying to make calls to get his wife air lifted. 
[Update] 
Pastor Devarese's wife has an open pelvis fracture. There are no operating rooms. There are surgeons at UN hospital but no place to operate. We are scrambling to get something  up that is structurally safe.  Biggest problem is there is no place for post-operative care.  These conditions are bad!
Dan 

Disaster work is always a lesson in patience.
Our first vehicle broke down and we were on the side of the road with local guys climbing underneath it trying to get it running while little kids scampered around giggling at us. We ended up transferring our bags to a small pickup truck and Linda Markee and I crammed into the front seat for a long trip over dirt mogles. Eventually we teamed up with Pastor Delamy. He is friends with Dr. Joe and Linda Markee. He had two Toyota Landcruzers and a large truck for our supplies. We are spending the night in Dr. Joe's clinic with the plan to be on the road by 6:00 or 6:30 AM. We are hoping to meet up with a pastor from Port au Prince that has a church just a few miles from the airport. We may be able to set up our clinic there and start treating the injured. We are very eager to get to work.

We received very the very sad news today that they found Molly Hightower's body in the rubble of the orphanage she was serving. So much tragic loss! Please keep her family and friends in your prayers. 

Our trip tomorrow will be about 5 hours or so. I think I'm already about 4 inches shorter from the roads. Wow!