By Dr Paul Taylor
Our modern culture has become obsessed with comfort, convenience and quick fixes. If even a hint of challenge emerges – mentally, physically, emotionally – we often rush to eliminate it. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: comfort doesn’t prepare you for the inevitable challenges of life. Hardiness does. Here’s what you need to know.
Hardiness is more than just being tough or resilient. It’s a specific psychological construct representing a pattern of attitudes and skills that provides the courage and strategies to turn unexpected change and stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities.
First identified by researchers Salvatore Maddi and Suzanne Kobasa through a groundbreaking 12-year study at Illinois Bell Telephone during massive industry disruption (and outlined in their 1984 book The Hardy Executive: Health Under Stress), hardiness has emerged as the key factor that distinguishes those who thrive under extreme stress from those who succumb to it.
While two-thirds of employees in Maddi and Kobasa’s study experienced significant health and performance deterioration during their workplace disruption, one-third not only maintained their health and performance, but also flourished.
What made the difference?
These resilient individuals demonstrated three interrelated attitudes that together constitute hardiness:
- Challenge: The view that change is normal and a challenge that presents opportunities for growth and learning, and the willingness to lean into challenges rather than shy away from them.
- Control: The belief that you can influence outcomes and your overall destiny through your efforts, rather than feeling powerless in the face of external forces.
- Commitment: A tendency to involve yourself deeply in whatever you’re doing with a genuine sense of purpose, rather than feeling detached or alienated from your life and work.
Hardiness tested in the crucible of war
No discussion of hardiness would be complete without examining the extraordinary case of Vice Admiral James Stockdale, whose experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam represents perhaps the most profound real-world test of hardiness principles in modern times.
Stockdale was shot down over North Vietnam on 9 September, 1965. He spent the next seven and a half years in Hôa Lò Prison (sardonically nicknamed the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ by American POWs), including a mind-boggling four years in solitary confinement and two years in leg irons. He was also tortured 15 times.
What makes Stockdale’s story remarkable is not just that he survived, but also how he survived – by consciously applying the principles of Stoic philosophy he had studied before his capture.
Stockdale had learned about the Stoics from a philosophy lecturer during his time at university, where the American Navy had sent him to study a master’s degree in international relations to prepare him for senior roles. Stockdale was so impressed by the teachings of the Stoics that he brought a copy of the book The Enchiridion by Epictetus to war with him.
“I’m leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus”, Stockdale whispered to himself as he parachuted into enemy territory after his aircraft had been shot down early in the war. This wasn’t just a poetic thought; it was a profound psychological shift that would prove crucial to his survival.
The Stockdale paradox
In the prison, Stockdale put the principles of hardiness into action:
- Challenge: He viewed his imprisonment not just as suffering to endure, but also as a test of character with meaning and purpose. He saw himself as responsible for maintaining the honour of his fellow prisoners and upholding the military code of conduct.
- Control: He focused relentlessly on what he could control – his own responses, his leadership of other prisoners, his internal discipline – while accepting what he couldn’t control, such as his captivity and the torture.
- Commitment: He remained deeply engaged with his role as the senior officer among the prisoners, establishing a chain of command, creating the mission ‘To return with honour’, and developing a code of conduct that helped many prisoners maintain their integrity under extreme duress.
Stockdale later articulated what became known as the ‘Stockdale Paradox’, which embodies the essence of hardiness:
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
This cognitive balancing act of maintaining unwavering faith while facing hard truths is precisely what hardiness research reveals about resilient individuals: they simultaneously accept the reality of their situation, while maintaining the belief that they can eventually overcome it.
Dr Paul Taylor
