After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build. Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy. Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,” and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.


雪柔．桑德伯格的丈夫驟逝之後，她確信自己與孩子再也無法感受到純粹的喜悅。她寫道：「我當時像是被『掏空』般，空虛充滿了你的心肺，讓你無法思考、無法呼吸。」雪柔的朋友亞當．格蘭特是華頓商學院教授，他告訴雪柔：人在生活受到重創後要回復原狀是有其具體的方法的。心理韌性（resilience）並非與生俱來，但它就像肌肉，可以透過鍛鍊變得更強韌。雪柔在本書中不僅提出自己深刻的見解，亞當針對人們在生命逆境中找到力量的研究也同樣令人大開眼界。書一開始寫雪柔發現發現丈夫戴夫．戈柏倒臥在健身房的痛心時刻，雪柔敞開心胸、翻開日記，描述丈夫死後帶給她的沉痛與孤獨。本書不僅記述雪柔的喪夫之痛，更探究大多數人如何克服難關，像是疾病、失業、性侵、天災地變、戰爭等，透過這些人的故事讓我們明白，人都有堅毅和重新找回喜悅的能力。心理韌性來自我們內心深處及外在的支持，即使是在生命遭逢劇變之時，若能發現生命更大的意義與寶貴之處，心理韌性也就能更加茁壯。本書為深陷危機的人指出一條明路，也幫助我們建立同理心、教出心理素質強大的孩子，並創造充滿韌性的家庭、社群和職場。這些課題大多能夠應用到我們每天所遇到的困境，讓我們能勇敢面對眼前的挑戰。丈夫過世兩週後，雪柔的孩子正準備一場父子活動，她哭著說：「我多麼希望戴夫在我身邊。」朋友亞當告訴她：「選項 A 已行不通」，但亞當保證會幫她用選項 B 活得更精采。