5 Ways to Build Resilience and Conquer Adversity

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing market research on mental health apps, downloading anything onto my phone related to relieving stress, anxiety, depression, and so on. I wanted to see what’s going on in that part of the industry and if maybe I wanted to drop a bunch of money into a sinkhole trying to make one myself.

Most of the apps advertise themselves as “self-care” apps. They have cute and fancy names intentionally misspelled by one letter. They promise to reduce anxiety, alleviate depression, and help you destress in difficult situations. And they all assure us that they’re based on the latest, greatest science.

I doodled around with them for a couple of days. Some were interesting and had cool features. Many did not. Some gave decent advice. Most did not. I made notes and then moved on.

But what I forgot was that I had left notifications on for all of them.

For the next week, I woke up to a steady stream of banal platitudes and feel-good nonsense cascading across my phone:

• “You have a beautiful smile, Mark. Don’t forget to share it with the world today.”
• “Whatever you want to achieve today, you can do it, Mark. All you need to do is believe in yourself.”
• “Every day is an opportunity and today is yours…