Jeremy Renner had a different plan for 2023, but everything changed on New Year’s Day. After spending a relaxing holiday with close friends and family, he took on a massive task: Clearing three feet of snow from the front of his home and the exterior road.
Tragedy struck when his 14,300-pound snowplow suddenly capsized. He miraculously survived, but his broken body sustained life-threatening injuries, including over 30 broken bones and a collapsed lung.
Renner has been candid about his grueling fight to return to health. He’s persevered step-by-step, from weeks in ICU to daily rehab, using a walker, and now lightweight workouts. He recently posted a video to his Instagram account as he tested his agility and strength by carefully crawling over a rock bridge. He’s shy of the fitness level attained for Marvel movies, but his progress is astounding.
It would be understandable for Jeremy to be angry and resentful about lost time in his life and career. Instead, he’s grateful for how far he’s come in 2023. He reflected, “When you’re tested physically, emotionally, spiritually—in every way—and then to come through it. That’s hard to explain.”
Renner has used what he downplays as “the accident” as a life reset. He said, “My life is really lean, if that makes sense. There’s no fat in my life anymore. I don’t have time for that.”
In the November series, Flip Your Failures with Soft Skills, we’ve discussed how to put the soft skill How tactics you use every day to work to turn temporary failures into lasting wisdom. Like the case study, have you fielded a surprise or two that upended your meticulous plans? Take heart—just because you’ve fallen down once or twice doesn’t mean you must stay down.
However, the setback you experienced is just the start. It’s how you react that will make the difference going forward. Back in the day, people thought they were bossing up by ignoring disappointments or glossing over their impact. But that short-sighted thinking won’t serve you in the long run.
Instead, turn to work skill How tactics to view disappointments through a new lens. Face them head-on, learn from them, and use that wisdom to your advantage. Now, that’s the way to boss up!
Your transformation formula to shift failures is to state what’s bothering you, then complete the starter sentence, “In the future, I will ____.” Use soft skill How tactics, such as being creative, making astute choices, or being compassionate to anchor insights you’ll use for a lifetime.
Here’s a recap of what we’ve learned in this series, including examples of the starter sentence:
Failures will happen, but they don’t have to be the boss of you. Act like the creative wise CEO of your life—a Soul Boss—a live lean by taking the wisdom you’ve learned from the setbacks and letdowns of this year with you and waving goodbye to everything else. Keep being teachable, insightful flexible and good humored—that’s how to build an impeccable skill set.
Are you ready to uplevel your professional skill set? Have you heard about soft skills but think, “I’ll know it when I see it?” And are you pressed for time? No worries—Straight talk about soft skills and how to get things done at work is finally here. Check out my new book, Soft Skills Basics in a Flash.