I was reading tonight and came across the story of Admiral James Stockdale, the highest-ranking US officer taken prisoner in Vietnam. During 8 years as a hostage, he was tortured regularly, and had no reason to think he would ever be released or see his family again. Yet despite his horrific circumstances, Stockdale became a beacon of hope for other prisoners in the camp. He developed secret methods of communication to fight effects of isolation, and taught other prisoners how to create coping mechanisms to deal with the enemy's torture tactics. In short, he kept faith alive in a situation where most people would have long since let it die.
According to Stockdale, what separates people is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life. His own life experience confirms the powerful belief that one can actually come back from difficulties STRONGER, not weaker.
The Stockdale Paradox states that "in every circumstance, you must retain faith that you will prevail in the end regardless of the difficulties and, at the same time, confront the most brutal facts of your current reality...whatever they might be."
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