Dr. Taryn Stejskal is the founder of the prolific blog and successful podcast, Grow Forward. Both focus on cultivating her listeners’ resilience and reaching their full potential.
Her audience members and listeners describe her as an, ‘IV for the soul’. She has a natural empathy, authentic and radiant presence and her intellectual agility shine through her message. Dr. Taryn is known for her ability to gently speak truth to power with a level of passion and sincerity that are characteristic of her savvy communication style. She is both nourishing and deeply inspirational.
Dr. Taryn is acorporate executive at a global Fortune 50 company, heading up leadership development, a writer, a Mom, an athlete, an international traveler, and a philanthropist.
“If you asked me a decade ago about any of these pursuits, I wouldn’t have believed any of them was possible for me. I didn’t have confidence in my own abilities. Heck, I didn’t even really know what my abilities were. If you asked me, back then, what I was good at, I would have said something general like, “I’m a people person”. In addition to not truly knowing myself and appreciating my strengths, I definitely didn’t feel worthy to go after, let alone have, this big, expansive, exciting life, filled with global travel, and the opportunity to meet and inspire people across the world.
Learning to believe in myself and understand the extent of what I can achieve continues to unfold before me with each passing day, month, and year.
I grew up with undiagnosed dyslexia and a series of traumatic experiences in high school that left me with two decades of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In short, growing up, I didn’t think I was very smart, and I felt very afraid of the world a lot of the time.”
With a learning disability and trauma symptomsto manage Dr. Taryn completed a doctorate degree, and went on to garner accomplishments beyond her wildest dreams.
People often think that you need to be “born resilient”, when in fact, people are MADE resilient. This means you are not defined by your past circumstances AND that you were made for even more! How?
Dr. Taryn nowhelps women face challenges, change, and complexity, so they will flourish and not fold.
“The essential condition required to live a flourishing life is not found in the absence of adversity, but rather in our response to difficulty. In particular, our willingness to engage in five behaviors, or practices, that lead to greater resilience in the face of challenge. These behaviors create a scaffolding that supports us when we inevitably face a challenge and serve as a buffer against stress and overwhelm. The myth of resilience is that we bounce back. The truth of resilience is that we bounce forward,” stated Stejskal.
Contrary to popular belief, resilience is not bouncing forward, and it is not passive, in the sense that time heals all wounds. Rather, resilience is an active process that allows us to integrate our challenges in order to bounce forward were people that are fundamentally and forever changed, with greater wisdom, compassion, and appreciation for our trials.
Flourish or fold enlightens us to the human capacity to be present in the face of challenge and to leverage the lessons inherent in challenge, change, and complexity for deeper personal growth and development.
Dr. Taryn also the author of the copyrighted “Flourish or Fold: The Five Practices of Particularly Resilient People”, which will release as a new book in 2020.