There’s never been a better time to start building the skills to serve you in every area of life. The setbacks will come. The challenges will return. The question is: Will you be ready?

Each week, I spend at least 12 hours on coaching calls with men across Canada. A specific purpose guides our work: helping them overcome challenges with sexual function, find deeper connections, and build better relationships with themselves and others. But as I’ve seen, these issues don’t exist in isolation—they ripple into every aspect of life. Performance in the bedroom is connected to performance at work, sports, finances, and relationships. Many of my clients are high performers who work in complex fields: emergency room doctors, athletes, real estate developers, enterprising family business owners - from agriculture to large fleet leasing, you name it.

At its core, our work is about building resilience—developing the internal resources to face difficult moments with strength and adaptability. However, these challenges aren’t one-time events. They will resurface throughout life, and how we meet them determines whether we stay stuck or grow.

But when we feel threatened, or like we’re losing control, our nervous system kicks into survival mode. We can instinctively reach for quick fixes—not solutions, but short-term escapes that numb discomfort rather than resolve it. We grab our phones to distract ourselves, throw ourselves into busy work to feel productive or avoid difficult conversations entirely. These reactive responses feel like a relief at the moment but often harm us in the long run.

How We Respond to Stress

When faced with discomfort, we tend to default to three protective patterns:

1. Avoidance & Detachment – Shutting down, numbing, or withdrawing to escape discomfort.
2. Fighting & Defending – Reacting aggressively, becoming rigid in our beliefs, or resisting change.
3. Clinging & Shrinking – Seeking comfort in familiar people, ideas, and spaces, narrowing our world to what feels safe.

But true resilience comes from a different response:

Acceptance, Exploration & Integration

Rather than reacting, we can train ourselves to:

✔Accept uncertainty rather than fear it.

 ✔Explore new possibilities instead of shutting down.

✔ Integrate new insights and challenges into our personal growth.

✔ Employ tools that regulate our physical symptoms while solving emotional distress.

Resilience isn’t just about toughness; it’s about adaptability. It’s not about avoiding failure but developing the skills, mindset, and tools to grow through life’s inevitable setbacks.

Resilience Is a Skill—Not Just a Mindset

Resilience isn’t something you’re born with—it’s something you build. It’s the emotional, relational, physical, and mental toolkit you rely on when life becomes unhinged—when your business, the economy, or personal world takes an unexpected turn, and outcomes don’t go your way.

I’ve spent years honing this skill, both in my work and in my personal life. I’ve rebuilt my body and mind after two major cycling crashes that changed me physically but never kept me from the start line of the Boston Marathon. I’ve raised three kids through a pandemic and two teenage boys as a mom without a script to follow. Through every challenge, I’ve learned that resilience isn’t about resisting change but moving through it.

Resilience Starts Here.

There’s never been a better time to start building the skills to serve you in every area of life. The setbacks will come. The challenges will return. The question is: Will you be ready?