The Resilience You Never Knew You Had and 4 Ways to Enhance It
Resistance, obstacles, and challenges are all around us. We have likely faced more of them in the last year than we can count or even remember. Equally prevalent is our ability to overcome those things that get in our way. With each of those, we are building our resilience muscle. Resilience and grit are words that have begun to surface as key leadership traits over the past few years. Most people have more of those in them than they realize.
Resilience is the ability to adapt well in the face of adversity. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Everyone has the capacity to be resilient. It can be learned, practiced, and honed. Like many other skills or abilities, resilience may be overthought or made out to be something harder than it really is. At the core of resilience is simply the act of making minor changes when faced with any obstacle. It doesn’t have to be a major event. Skipping a day of exercise is an obstacle. Getting back into the gym the very next day is resilience. It is getting right back up on the horse when you fall off. In a previous article, 5 Ways to Overcome the Challenge of Resistance That All Leaders FaceI share ways to move past resistance and practice the skills of resilience.
Simplifying to that level begins to paint the picture of how much we are all practicing being resilient each day. We must acknowledge that, so we can realize even more benefit from those actions. We take for granted that we re-start the next day something we didn’t do the previous day. Take a moment to celebrate and reflect on what brought you back to your desired outcome. Every habit you have has taken some grit to begin and establish it. When you miss completing that item for a day but return to it the next – that is resilience in action. These small steps can lead to the support you need when you find yourself staring at the larger challenges in life.
We have survived 100% of the challenges we have each faced in our lives — Michael Hyatt
I have heard Michael Hyatt say more than once that we have survived one-hundred percent of the challenges we have faced in our lives. That sounds silly at first, but it is one-hundred percent true. We all have faced moments that felt insurmountable, yet we move forward and find a way to get to the next thing. We learn from the pain of those previous experiences. We learn not only how to avoid that issue again in the future, but more importantly, we get a small lesson in the idea that we can make it through those difficult times.
Certain activities can assist in strengthening your ability to be resilient. These four things will help you get stronger:
Wellness — take care of yourself. There are countless studies that show the importance of sleep, good nutrition, and exercise. This is especially true to position yourself in the best way to overcome the challenges you are facing at work or in your personal life. Bouncing back starts by taking care of yourself.
Purpose — come back to what matters most to you. Or at the very least, what is driving you to accomplish what you are working on. When you hit that first wall of resistance, your resilience will come from remembering why you were doing it in the first place. I have found this to be helpful in both personal endeavors (i.e., exercising) and business (i.e., people are counting on me).
Attitude — it is a choice. Overcoming any challenge is a choice as well. How you choose to frame the particular challenge you face may determine how you choose to overcome it, work around it, or ignore it.
Partnering — other people face challenges too. They may even have experience in what you are dealing with — ask for help. There is no greater strength than seeking the help of others when you need it. In some cases, it is as much about talking it through with others as it is getting advice or their insights. Seeking support doesn’t always mean asking for the answer, it can be just asking for an ear to listen to your thoughts and ideas for solutions.
Resilience isn’t this impossible thing to acquire. We all have it in us today. First, we must realize how much we already use it, then recognize that we are stronger than we may give ourselves credit for in all the small challenges we overcome each day. Taking care of ourselves, reflecting on what drives us most, choosing a positive attitude, and partnering with others is a way for any leader to demonstrate resilience and not only face the day-to-day obstacles but overcome them effectively.
What small resilience examples do you have that can help you see how strong you really are in this area already?
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