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I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis

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When he was a college student in Israel in the mid-1980s, a landmine--leftovers of the 1967 War--blew Jerry White's world apart, taking a leg but leaving him with a big choice. Would he become a victim of an accident and live in bitterness and self-pity, or would he choose life?

First with the help of the do-or-die Israelis who had no time for self-pity or any other form of self-destructive self-indulgence, and then with the help of family and friends and countless wise others, White chose life and transformed his traumatic experience into his life's work. Today he is the leader of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (for which he was corecipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1997), and cofounder of Survivor Corps. He describes his journey from victim to survivor to "thriver" in his new book I Will Not Be Broken.

The book outlines a program of five steps for coping with disaster. He draws on his experiences as well as those of famous persons such as Lance Armstrong; Diana, Princess of Wales; Christopher Reeve, the American Psychological Association, and the not so famous--his college roommate, his mom, Bosnians who survived the warn in their country, a little Cambodian girl who also lost a leg to a landmine. His drawing on the wisdom of persons from all walks of life underscores he beliefs that wisdom is a collective resource as well as an individual one and that all life is interconnected. White's book approaches the challenge of trauma positively by focusing on individual strengths rather than dwelling on what went wrong and why.

I Will Not Be Broken is an earthy, conversational, and real testament of the beauty and wonder of all life. Here are some highlights of the book in White's words.

"Each of us has seeds of victimhood, survivorship, and thriving potential within us."

"The challenge we face is integrating our experiences--sorrowful and joyful--to help us evolve from victimhood to thriving."

"For many people, there isn't one precise moment of crisis [but an accumulation]--a few unpleasant things overlap, and a crisis sneaks up from behind."

To prevent being broken by crisis,

First, face the facts. "Great teachers and prophets admonish us to get real with ourselves, no matter how humiliating the facts."

"None of us will get very far without first examining our circumstances, relationships, and feelings. We will need to be ruthless in our self-assessment."

Second, we need to choose life. "We must consciously choose for our lives to go on in a positive way."

We can accomplish this by "nurturing a positive view of ourselves, keeping things in perspective, and maintaining a hopeful outlook."

Having crossed the threshold to survivorship, we can take the third step of reaching out because no one thrives in isolation.

"We have to let people in our life into our life." As Albert Schweizer has said, "'At times our own light goes out an dis rekindled by a spark form another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.'"

Next, we need to get moving, to think of the future and develop a plan for achieving goals, though "the speed at which [we] move is less relevant than the belief that [we]will move."

Finally, we must take Step Five and give back. "You must give to a community in order to belong to a community. You can become a volunteer, a community leader, a donor, a social change agent, a future peer supporter. You get outside yourself and, by doing so, get away from your suffering. It's not charity. It's not pity. It's gratitude in motion. It is belonging in action."

Taking these steps is the best way to avoid falling into the trap of victimhood, a stagnant state of being that includes living in the past, wallowing in self-pity, resenting others, blaming others, and taking from others.

Taking these steps can lead to resilience, "our capacity to bounce back and resume function and health after a confrontation with disruptive or traumatic events...Resilient people are somehow able to draw on past experiences and find inner strength to navigate their troubles and make the transition to a healthy, flourishing future."

I must admit I was a bit reluctant to start reading this book because I thought it might be a bit depressing. I knew that the point of the book was that people can learn to thrive (not just survive) after trauma and tragedy; however, I was concerned that reading about so many people's experiences of tragedy would be difficult. I was wrong! I was completely wrong! It is a very inspiring and uplifting book! Once I started reading, I didn't want to put it down.

The author of this great book, Jerry White, suffered the loss of his leg after stepping on a landmine in Israel in 1984. I have to say that Jerry has done a phenomenal job weaving together his story and the stories of many other people into a very uplifting book. I believe Jerry's book is genius in action. Even though he shares details of tragic events and raw emotions, the pages are filled with hope and positivity. He provides a clear road map for moving from surviving to thriving. I think this is a must read for anyone who has had some type of challenge in life - I think that is probably everyone! I have benefited spiritually, mentally, and emotionally from reading the book so I feel obligated to pay it forward by writing this review and letting you know about Jerry's organization - Survivor Corps.

To sum up - this is a great, enjoyable, uplifting, and powerful read. It provides a great roadmap to help you recover and learn to thrive after loss or tragedy.

"I Will Not Be Broken" succeeds brilliantly at being what it sets out to be: a thoughtful, sensitive, and useful guide along the path of survivorship. I found it inspiring in all the right places, well-reasoned, and down-to-earth. Being able to discover more about White's own journey and where he looks for guiding lights is also a valuable aspect of the book. We have much we can learn from him.

White intersperses his very accessible philosophizing with his own personal stories as well as those of the people he's met in his work and travels. The result is a very readable book filled with useful tools and reflections on their practical applications by real people.

My son passed away last month at the age of 19 from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. I had already read Jerry's book prior to this, and took great comfort in knowing that there were people out there "thriving" even though they were faced with incredibly challenging situations. I find myself rereading the book and planning my own survival strategies around Jerry's 5 Steps. This is an incredible book that will give anyone who reads it valuable information about how to move forward in a productive and healthy way.

I am a public health nurse working with victims of violence in Oakland. I found this book extremely helpful both professionally and personally! Jerry White outlines actions and attitudes which assist people in recovering from life's unexpected events. His stories about his personal experience coupled with those of others are an inspirational and practical guiding light. What a rare treat. I recommend this book highly.

This book by Jerry White is very uplifting and provides practical steps to overcoming tragedy. It is extremely remarkable in it's approach to reaching deep inside a person to reveal hidden strengths and the power to overcome.

Mr. White does an amazing job of bringing together the stories of many people who could have chosen to fall victim to their circumstances yet instead chose to thrive and beyond that, be full of joy. His own story of losing a leg in Israel at a young age is uplifting and challenging to the reader. I appreciate how he reminds us to make self-assessments and to choose how we will feel instead of falling victim to situations. This five steps to freedom are also practical and very helpful in the process of overcoming tragedy.

Overall, this is an encouraging and uplifting book and it is definitely worth reading for anyone who has suffered a tragedy in their life.

I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis

Just finished reading I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White and this is an amazingly uplifting and hope-filled book.

In 1984, Jerry White lost his leg in a landmine accident while on vacation in Israel. He later became a co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network, which has recently changed it's name and broadened it's mission to become Survivor Corps

The book is a compilation of Jerry's own experiences and the lessons learned in surviving by many other people he's met, and it's subtitled "5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis".

The book breaks down the keys to surviving and Thriving during that survival, into the 5 steps,which you can find listed on the website for the book, and for me, that was part of why I felt the book would be such an invaluable tool for anyone recovering from a cataclysmic loss in their life. Because of my volunteer work with Soldiers Angels , I was particularly thinking of wounded soldiers while I was reading this book.

Many wounded soldiers refer to the day they almost lost their life in combat as their "Alive Day", and although Jerry doesn't use that term in his book, I found this sentence on page 7 that seems to epitomize what "Alive Day" means...." I want to encourage all of us to honor our toughest dates - the tragedies that bind us - in an effort to transform victimhood into survivorship."

The book does a wonderful job, in my opinion, of giving practical advice for How to "transform victimhood into survivorship",and is also filled with the stories of How so many Other survivors of tragedies have done exactly that.

It's an easy read, and I would recommend it highly to anyone who is currently facing a life-altering tragedy in their life, or the life of someone close to them.

Nobel Prize winner Jerry White is the co-founder of Survivor Corps and the author of I Will Not Be Broken. The inspirational book shares his story of how he dealt with being injured by a landmine and his journey in leading his own life and others to help those like himself in countries all over the world. You will find some inspiration here, for sure. In the book, five steps are laid out by White.

There is not on overtly Christian message in what White writes. I need to say this for my readers since my blog here has reviewed explicitly Christian books for the most part. (I must also disclose that I was given a book after correspondence from the Survivor Corps people--which is one customary perk bloggers can claim at times).

What I think I can glean from all of this is that this cause is one that as a Christian I want to share with you. So, I am. Click over to Survivor Corps for more information on this amazing charitable organization.

Outstanding piece of literary work by Jerry White
Highly recommended and consider donating $ to LSN as it is a very worthy cause allowing survivors to walk and have a life again. Highly recommended..*****

although these thoughts have been said in thousands of ways, the book is very uplifting. Author provides many 1st person stories of people who have come through tragedies. An easy read and I think a nice gift for someone going through challenging times.