Legions of self-help authors rightly urge personal development as the key to happiness but they typically fail to focus on its most important objective: hardiness. Though that which doesn't kill us can make us stronger as Nietzsche tells us few authors today offer any insight into just how?to springboard from adversity to strength.?

It doesn't just happen automatically and it takes practice. New scientific research?suggests that?resilience isn't something with which only a fortunate few of us have been born but rather something we can all take specific action to develop. To build strength out of adversity we need a catalyst. What we need according to?Dr. Alex Lickerman is wisdomwisdom that adversity has the potential to teach us.

Lickerman's underlying premise is that our ability to control what happens to us in life may be limited but we have the ability to establish a life-state to surmount the suffering life brings us. The Undefeated Mind distills the wisdom we need to create true resilience into nine core principles including:

--A? new definition of victory and its relevance to happiness

--The concept of the changing of poison into medicine

--A way to view prayer as a vow we make to ourselves.?

--A method of setting expectations that enhances our ability to endure disappointment and minimizes the likelihood of quitting

--An approach to taking personal responsibility and moral action that enhances resilience