Welcome to Nobody Told Me.

I'm Laura Owens.

And I'm Jan Black.

It would be hard to get through life without having some sort of a crisis impact you,

whether it's related to your

health, finances, relationships, career, or personal safety. Most of the time, a crisis like

the COVID-19 pandemic is out of our control, but we can control how we react to it. And for some

thoughts on how to do just that, we turn to our guest on this episode, Dr. Jim Taylor, who's an internationally

recognized expert in the psychology of critical performance. He's the author of 17 books,

the latest of which is called How to Survive and Thrive When Bad Things Happen, Nine

Steps to Cultivating an Opportunity Mindset in a crisis. Dr. Thank you so much for joining

us. Great to be here, Lauren, Jen. Thanks for having me. How do you define a crisis? Well,

it's interesting. We all kind of intuitively know what a crisis feels like when it hits, but we don't

really think too much about what makes a crisis. So a couple of key things about a crisis. First of all, it's unexpected. Most of the time,

it's something just happens, whether it's an earthquake, a financial crisis, obviously COVID-19.

Another thing about a crisis, it creates instability in our lives. It disrupts our lives rather significantly.

Another key thing, which I'll probably talk about a little later in our podcast, is a key

aspect of a crisis is that it's unfamiliar, unpredictable, and often uncontrollable. And those are

three qualities that human beings really don't like. And very importantly, it's experienced as some

sort of trauma. And the trauma can be physical, psychological, social, political, emotional,

economic, a lot of different effects on us. But they often have very powerful, significant

effects on us immediately, psychological and emotionally, and potentially long-term

...