There never has been a time when we have needed resilience more than right now. With stress levels through the roof, the ability to not give up, not quit, to stick with it is easier said than done. Right now we need to work on our resilience.
What is Resilience?
In simple terms, it’s our ability to recover quickly from a difficult situation. It is the ability to not give up but to bounce back from adversity. History has many examples of resilient people who came back from the brink. Thomas Eddison failed over 10000 times before he created the lightbulb. He lost everything in a major fire that destroyed his workshop and had to start from scratch. Colonel Saunders of KFC fame was 66 years old and presented his chicken recipe over 1000 times before the first restaurant owner decided to take it in. JK Rowling, was broke and living on benefits when she wrote Harry Potter. 12 publishers turned down her manuscript. The rest is history.
When we look at some of the most successful people in history, their ability to be resilient in the face of adversity was the quality that created the conditions for success.
What can we do to be more resilient?
1 Use disappointment to drive you: Disappointment is a natural emotion, but we have a choice to decide how we use that emotion. We can go backwards, or we can go forwards. Consider how you might use that disappointment to motivate you as look to the future. Can you view it as challenge that must be overcome? One of the ways to do that is to learn from disappointment by doing some self-analysis. What can I learn from this situation? What areas to I need to do differently? What skills do need to work on?
2 Restart: Recommit to your goal. There is a difference between stopping and quitting. Its ok to stop because of a disappointment but we have to do the things that gets us to restart. Focus on the things you are good at to get you back on track. Create good habits for yourself. For example, making a habit out of doing exercise even it is only for 20 mins gets us moving forward.
3 Create small wins: Look for small wins to fuel our confidence e.g. updating my CV, paying off my credit card bill, losing a pound of weight. They may be small wins, but we can use these as fuel towards our bigger goal. Nothing builds self esteem and confidence like accomplishments however small.
4 Take action! Confidence comes from doing something about a problem. Take action however small. It will fuel your feeling of moving forward, create more confidence and the energy to go further.
5 Manage your mindset: Our perception can create a picture of any given situation. Today we are bombarded with so much information particularly from social media, much of it is just noise. We must be careful that we are creating an environment where we are uplifting our mindset. Be careful of social media which makes us compare ourselves to others and what appears to be their amazing life. I am reminded by the quote “may your life be as good as it looks on Facebook”
Disappointment is unfortunately part of life. All those who have achieved something outstanding have come back from a setback. We must understand the role our emotions and mindset play in becoming more resilient. It is like a muscle that needs to be worked to become stronger. By understanding ourselves and our emotions, recommitting to the thing we want to achieve, we can create the environment to move forward. We can bounce back!
