Resilience is your superpower…your x-factor. It’s what will see you through any challenge.
Resilience is one of the most common traits of successful, happy people. Developing your resilience will not only help you to cope with challenging situations, but it can help you reach peak performance and enhance satisfaction, both in your personal and professional life.
Being more resilient is a matter of survival. It’s a core competency in leading change, and leading people. Without resiliency, it is impossible to deal effectively with situations under pressure.
The combination of resilience and resourcefulness packs a powerful punch when the inevitable challenges of running a business present themselves. When you have the perseverance to keep going in tough times, you’ll be better able to transform crises into breakthroughs and accomplish a lot with very little.
Have you ever looked back at trying times in your past and wondered how you coped? Have you marveled at how you adapted the new situation you found yourself in? Or surprised yourself by how quickly you bounced back?
That was your resilience.
Like many entrepreneurs during the last two years, I went through a restructuring of my business and took a massive financial risk that didn’t go the way I had planned. It was a valuable learning experience, and I was surprised at how I coped with the all the stress until I realized that I had been through much worse. This was simply another stage of my evolution, and I would take the lesson and use it to do things differently.
Resilience is our ability to recover from setbacks and adapt to challenging circumstances and is required to thrive and flourish. It empowers us to feel effective and capable of handling uncertainty.
Resourcefulness is the ability to overcome or improve situations by coming up with new, clever solutions to a challenge. In a business setting, a resourceful leader or employee is probably most often identified as someone who can “think outside the box.”
In my business, this led me to take twelve years of content and build an online personal growth program to help people develop their self-awareness and move them closer to their desired achievements.
Resourceful people tend to accommodate to change easily.
They understand that life changes, and the people they work with will change, and the economic and market factors will also change throughout their careers.
We learn to adapt. It’s the nature of human existence.
Losing a job, ending a marriage, or moving to another place are examples of changes that many people have experienced. We lose out on something important, a big plan collapses, or we are rejected by someone.
Another way of expressing this feeling of loss is that a door is being closed. Many of you may have heard the saying: ‘When one door closes another one opens.’
The end of one thing is always the beginning of something new. We have the option to stay focused on what is not here anymore (the doors that have been closed) or become aware of the new avenues that unfold.
Optimism is about the latter option. It is about also seeing the doors that are being opened. It is about holding a favorable view about the future, taking closing doors into consideration, and turning them into something beneficial
The most resilient people see change as an opportunity rather than a monster to fear.
Transitions in life allow you to consider where your priorities lie.
- How do you really want to spend your time on earth?
- What is important to you?
- Where do you see yourself wasting your time and energy?
With a clear sense of your goals and values, you will find your mind and body can be much more resilient when it comes to the stressors of change.
Above all, prioritizing your health in life’s transitions means not being afraid to ask for help when you need it.
Humans are social creatures by nature. You were not built to withstand every sudden event in life without the support of others.
Talk to family and friends who are experiencing similar changes or consider finding a support group in your community. Ask your doctor about how to prioritize your health during change, and do not be afraid to talk to a coach or other professional about building resilience.