Episode 201: What it Means to be an Adversity Warrior with Robin Osborn
If you're alive today, chances are you're dealing with adversity. It could be a family argument, knowing you need to get divorced, deciding whether or not you want to close down your business to having a health challenge. And that's where today's guest, Robin Osborn, is going to come in and blow our minds about what's actually possible as humans.
Becoming an adversity warrior
Robin is an adversity warrior, which she says is about overcoming adversity with a positive outlook no matter what – even when you don’t see the learnings immediately.
“I think, no I know, that we’re all facing challenges and mindset is a big, big piece of that,” says Robin. “Just asking for help is being an adversity warrior.”
Robin’s journey has been long, and arduous. Her father became overwhelmed with his business and died by suicide when Robin was 21. She took up the reins of the family’s FAA repair business.
Through adversity, no matter the lesson, it’s always going to help take you to the next level, the next job, the next experience, and the next conversation. For Robin, her journey has taught her self-love and that no one defines you.
Her day one experience with the family business meant convincing much older employees to trust her. She says it took about five years and a lot of personal conversations in learning first, and then proving herself. But the challenges didn’t stop there. Robin says typically every eight to 10 years, she faced some adversity in the business – she would get stuck, whether organizationally, departmentally or individually.
Getting stuck is a cycle – it’s normal. And the cycles seem to be getting shorter. We’re seeing it now every five years. People almost reinvent the business message, the strategy, the positioning inside the market, the method that they use to stand apart and also nurture themselves and the employees in a different way because the world is changing so quickly.
Robin implemented a business operating system in the family company about 25 years in, because she recognized she didn't have the tools and the experience to grow the company. She called herself a hamster in the wheel. She was frustrated. She read the book Traction by Gino Wickman and it really changed her perspective.
Adversity warriors need to let ego go
Robin moved to coaching and consulting, where she focused on helping people implement custom operating systems. It was her Zoom hustle during the pandemic. Then she started gaining weight. She had low energy. Her sister didn’t know why she was cussing so much. Three trips to the emergency room later after being told she was “fine” – they found a baseball-sized tumor in her brain.
“Trust your intuition, because women especially are very intuitive. When you don't know you have a brain tumor, your body automatically starts coping or you try and justify odd things that are going on,” says Robin.
When she works with clients now, she tells them to put their health first and do the self-care. She acknowledges the ego in the adversity warrior attitude – remembering that when she was in the hospital, in bad shape, she said to the nurse, “I'm invincible.” And the nurse said, “You are until you're not.”
Robin’s brain tumor was an emergency situation. She said goodbye to her children in case she didn’t make it. The pressure in her head was so bad, she was told she had a couple of days before it would take her life.
“I would say my MO, my purpose in life is to help people become better, but also exude joy every day. Because now, from here forward, every day is a free day for me.”
Finding resilience as Robin 2.0
The first 90 days post-surgery was very intense. Robin describes herself as a high achiever, so she had always been hard on herself in the past. With her second chance at life, Robin 2.0, as her husband called her, knew she was no longer going to take responsibility for things that weren’t hers. Healing her body was another milestone.
“It was a new, humbling experience in that I had to accept where it was and accept the one-day incremental changes,” says Robin. It took a year to walk one mile – her brain had to realign and reeducate.
What she found in her recovery was similar to business tools: Staying in your purpose, your why, your motivational drivers – getting the 1% and not living in extremes (always and never).
“You really need a vision, you need a goal, you need the tactical weekly measurables, you need accountability,” says Robin. “I would say the most powerful are the values – my moral compass that I operate off of.”
When Robin was in physical therapy and unable to lift her left leg, it was frustrating. She says she would cry but still show up. For her, that’s adversity warrior mentality –not quitting.
“What I learned in business and physically is instead of peaks and valleys, we have peaks and pre-peaks. The pre-peak is you’re always on the cusp of a breakthrough,” she says.
Hope and acceptance through adversity
Robin cites the acronym ‘HOPE’ (having only positive energy). She says the real catalyst for change is recognizing hope is in the present to future and committing to your vision; it’s not in the past.
For those of us listening who have a “why” that's bigger and outside of us to remember, there may be moments or times in our lives or periods where that “why” won't be there. Diving in more to figure out what you really want to use your life for is so important, and to not be afraid when it happens.
Robin says acceptance is the first step.
“We like to play it safe. We want to stay in the same security that we know. We want a certain outcome, but we're not in control of a lot,” says Robin.
Negative self-talk weighs us down. It takes our energy; steals it. Assumptions and interpretations of you know, “they're going to think I'm ‘X’” or the way that we interpret what somebody has said or our limited beliefs – they keep us stuck, and it’s self-induced.
“When I say adversity warrior coming from a positive outlook, the first thing is you got to be president of your own fan club,” says Robin.
The self-awareness is key because sometimes the negativity is subconscious – sometimes we don’t even we’re doing it. Moving past that is key for creating the life you want on your own terms.
Let’s get to it!
