My framework has no sequence and no hierarchy. It’s a circle.
What are the principles of the Back to Life Blueprint? There are five: Develop Vision, Know Yourself, Seek Support, Be Still, and Evolve. This is the resilience framework I live by. They emerged from my accident, when I had no choice but to figure things out.
I’m Danny Bader. On July 28, 1992, 8,000 volts of electricity rushed down a metal ladder and went into me and my friend Bruce. We both died. Only I came back to life, after about six minutes.
The principles run through my first book, Back to Life, and as a keynote speaker I’ve shared them with teams at Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Lincoln Financial, and Reebok.
Develop Vision: Imagine What Needs to Be Real
Vision is the ability to imagine what needs to be real. Olympic athletes use it constantly. Most of us don’t.
Several months after my accident, I was stuck in what I call the Valley of the Victim. I was in a pretty dark place and just didn’t want to be here. I drove to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a beach town shut down for the season in October.
One night, after a few hours of drinking, I called my mom from a phone booth. She said, “When are you coming home? We can’t wait to see you.” When I walked out, the little voice in my head said, I wonder what it’s going to be like when I get better.
Walt Disney died five years before Disney World opened. At the opening, a man told Walt’s brother, Roy, he wished Walt were there to see it. Roy said, “Walt did see it. That’s why it’s here.”
Write your next year in past tense, as if it already happened. It generates focus, and focus is your greatest commodity.
Know Yourself: Your Values and HUT (Hold Useful Thoughts)
Know Yourself has two parts: your values, and what’s going on between your ears.
Do you have your values written down, and do you review them every week or twice a month? Most people don’t. Don’t be most people.
Balance is not a value. It’s a byproduct of knowing your values and living them.
The second part is your thoughts. You are not your thoughts. You are the thinker of them. For years my story was that it was my fault Bruce’s kids didn’t have a dad, and I didn’t deserve to be happy.
So I use HUT: Hold Useful Thoughts. When our daughter Lizzie was a half mile from the finish of a cross country race, I wouldn’t yell “run.” I’d yell “HUT!” She knew to ask herself, am I holding the most useful thoughts to finish this next half mile?
Seek Support: Healing Happens in Connection, Not Isolation
Seek Support goes both ways. You seek support, and you be support.
After my accident, I lost my faith, I wasn’t letting my family help me, and I was drinking way too much. I went through therapists, priests, and psychiatrists like changing socks. My mom told me to keep going, and I finally found one who helped me see it: healing happens in connection, not isolation.
Someone in your life probably needs you more than you’re showing up for them. It’s not because you’re not a good person. We just get busy.
And love yourself. I once watched a dad on the beach in Cape May, New Jersey, load four sandbags into his cart and drag it across soft sand. I wanted to tell him to empty them, because there will be more sand tomorrow.
Be Still: Turn Off the Lawnmower and Connect With Your 4th Energy
Be Still is the principle I find lacking most in corporate audiences. It’s the ability to disconnect from the outer world and connect with your inner world, so you can hear what matters most.
I call the noise the lawnmower of life: your emails, your calendar, your social media. It has no off switch, so you have to install one. Meditation, a walk in nature, anything where your mind can settle.
On the Outer Banks, a closed-up beach town gave me the stillness to hear what I needed to hear. Today I come down almost every day to a little park where the Cape May ferry crosses to Lewes, Delaware, just to disconnect. Here’s more on how to find stillness in difficult times.
Stillness also connects you with your 4th Energy. Your heart, brain, and lungs keep your body working, and the fourth energy is your spirit. I know it’s real because mine left my body. It wants only what’s best for you, and it resides in stillness.
Evolve: Grow From the Good Times and the Setbacks
To evolve is to undergo continuous and gradual change and growth. I’m always striving to be the best version of myself, and I’ll never get there, because that would mean I’m done.
The people who live with a Radical Reverence for Your Life aren’t the strongest or the smartest. They’re the people committed to their growth, who embrace change and embrace struggle.
How do you evolve? Keep practicing the other four, completely and consistently, and you can’t help but grow.
It takes time. I died in 1992, got married in 1993, and we had Luke in 1994. I don’t remember 1995. We had Joey in 1996, and then I kind of woke up.
That’s one reason bouncing back is the wrong way to think about resilience. Impatience and frustration are not good forces to move you forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 principles of the Back to Life Blueprint?
The five principles are Develop Vision, Know Yourself, Seek Support, Be Still, and Evolve. I uncovered them in the years after an 8,000-volt accident in 1992 left me dead for about six minutes. There’s no sequence or hierarchy. You work on the ones you need most.
What does “Know Yourself” mean in Danny Bader’s framework?
It has two parts. First, your values: write them down and review them every week or twice a month to make sure your actions line up. Second, watching your thoughts, because you are not your thoughts. You are the thinker of them.
What is HUT and how do you use it?
HUT stands for Hold Useful Thoughts. Notice the thoughts you’re holding, let go of the ones that aren’t serving you, and replace them with more useful ones. Journaling helps you become more conscious of them.
Where to Start With the Back to Life Blueprint
Not sure where to begin? Start with the two most neglected in corporate America: being still, and monitoring your thoughts. If you want a third, add Develop Vision. Then practice all five more completely and more consistently.
You don’t need a tragedy to have a wake-up call. Sometimes all you need is a moment.
Bring the Back to Life Blueprint to Your Next Conference
I deliver the Back to Life Blueprint as a keynote for conferences and corporate teams. If your people are running on noise and stuck in their heads, it gives them five principles to practice when they get home.
