In this segment of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick reflects on his recent interview with Adrian (Adrienne) Haslett, a former professional ballroom dancer whose life was dramatically altered by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The explosion occurred just feet from her, resulting in the loss of her left leg below the knee and ending her dancing career. Rather than succumbing to victimhood, Adrian embraced a survivor identity, refusing to be labeled a victim and focusing on recovery. She credits a supportive community—including an off‑duty doctor, first responders, and a “miracle surgeon”—as well as therapy for her mental health, in facilitating her healing. Three years after the attack, Adrian returned to the Boston Marathon, this time as a runner with a prosthetic, using the experience to inspire others. Brian highlights key themes from the interview: the internal conflict between personal ambition and perceived selfishness, the importance of purpose in driving resilience, and the mindset shift from dwelling on trauma to actively pursuing recovery. He concludes with a call to listeners to reflect on their own challenges and consider how they might define themselves in the face of adversity, using Adrian’s story as a model.
Chapters
Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Here we are, a day off of our interview with the amazing Adrian Haslett. If you have not listened to the, to the interview I did with Adrian just yesterday, please make sure you carve out an hour, which I know is a lot longer than our typical episodes. Carve out an hour and listen to that conversation. Adrienne is one of the most amazing people you'll ever hear from. Here's a woman that was a professional ballroom dancer at the peak of her career and unfortunately finds herself standing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013. Bomb goes off, terrorist attack. And it's within feet from her. She loses her left leg or her left leg below her knee and can no longer dance. And whereas so many individuals may have given up at that moment, Adrienne did the opposite of that. Instead, after recovering, she used that moment as, as a way to create hope and inspiration in others. And she's, and she's just, she's just getting started. One thing I want to talk about that Adrienne covered in our interview was this, this journey of hers from the ballroom dancing to, to the Boston Marathon and beyond. Really the resilience that she demonstrated through adversity. So her life, as we talked about it, was transformed by that Boston Marathon bombing. It was transformed in that obviously she had to adjust to a new way of living. But just a few years later, she found herself at the start line of the Boston Marathon, the very place where that horrific accident occurred, the very place where her life was changed. She's now at the start line 3 years later, you know, running with the prosthetic and inspiring so many others. She had shared with me in that interview that, you know, the initial thought she had during that bombing, like she played through with us, you know, what was going on in her mind, she had this realization of, you know, what losing her leg would mean and this fear that she had that she wouldn't be able to dance again. I mean, she probably knew at that moment that even if she recovered, she'd never be able to dance again at the level that she had previously experienced. It was interesting to me, she had this internal conflict, this kind of feeling of selfishness that she had talked about for pursuing her dream career as a dancer, yet deeply valuing it. So she valued this dream, but she also felt selfish about pursuing it. I found that inner conflict to be an interesting one. And, and then she went on to explain the significance of being saved by the community around her. The off-duty doctor, the first responders, the surgical team. She says her miracle surgeon. She had to be resilient, Adrian. And one of my favorite things that she shared in our episode was her quote around how she refused to be called a victim. She said, "I'm not a victim. I am a survivor." And a survivor is defined by how you live your life, not what happened to you, but how you live your life going forward. That mentality of not being a victim, but being a survivor, and her thoughts around hope were just so, so inspiring. She had to shift her mindset. To one of recovery. Again, I think so many others just would not have made this shift in the way that she has, but in the way that she did. But she shifted her mindset to focus on recovery instead of dwelling on the, on the trauma. To me, that is the difference from, in listening to her, as to what I think might be a victim versus somebody that was a survivor. She also made mention of the importance of therapy and, and seeking help, you know, for, for her mental health. And that was part of the healing process. So I'm talking about Adrienne's resilience today, the specific, you know, resilience through adversity, because I think that for many of us, while we may never experience adversity in the way that Adrienne experienced it, there's some lessons to be drawn from this. You may recall in the interview, after hearing her speak around this subject, and I had asked something along the lines of like, you know, What led you to be a, you know, be the one to overcome so much adversity? And I think she had said, I'm not, you know, I'm not quite sure what it is, but then she described some things that had happened in the way her mindset was. And my comment was, you know, what I'm hearing out of you, Adrian, is that you had purpose, that you found purpose, purpose to, to carry on and to do great things and to inspire and honor her family and, and and all of these things that she's doing today. And I think today's lesson, when you think around resilience, specifically resilience through adversity, if you're learning from Adrienne, that is something to draw, that is something to take. That if you're ever faced with a circumstance where you have to display resilience, where you have to fight through adversity, when you have to overcome odds, the importance of finding purpose I cannot go unnoticed. So my call to action to you, I'd love for you to reflect on your own challenges. I want you to think about the moments in your life when resilience may have redefined your life's path. And I want to ask you this question: how can you choose, like Adrian, Adrian chose, how can you choose to define yourself in the face of adversity. Rather than run or hide from adversity, how can you choose to define yourself in the face of it? I think Adrian Serbes is a great model for that. Something to think about today. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
