RESILIENCE – A Core Competency for Everyone

Let’s discuss resilience. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with a group of new college graduates as they embark upon their first corporate role and the question that keeps coming up is “how to build resilience”.
How do you build resilience? How can you build the skills to recover from setbacks, bad news, and challenges, both in your professional and personal lives?

First let’s define resilience. Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or tough situations. But, what does it mean to be a resilient person?

To be resilient you have to be aware of your situation – no hiding or ignoring your situation. You have to be in touch with your own emotional reactions, both positive and negative. You also have to be aware of the behavior of those around you and how that affects you.

Stated even more simply, resilience means you have the ability to remain calm during crisis, or through a setback, and move on from it without any long-term negative consequences.

Sounds easy right? But for many people, it’s not. The good news is that you can build resilience. Working through a few steps, outlined in the infographic below, you can find a way forward.

© 2022 M McCown, Clarity Coaching DC

The information above is tactical and in response to an active setback or challenge, but let’s say you are not in the middle of a setback. Can you still build up your resilience muscle? Of course you can!

Here’s some of my favorite ways to do that.

1. Be optimistic. It can be a stretch if you’re not naturally wired that way but do your best, every day, to “see the glass half full”.

2. Build positive relationships. If you have a relationship with a friend, a family member, a coworker, or an acquaintance that isn’t positive, do your best to get out of it or distance yourself from that person. You may have heard that we are the product of who we spend most of our time around and that can be very true for most people. If you are constantly listening to someone go on about all the bad things that are happening to them and all the bad things that are happening in the world, it can really affect your mindset. Find some separation from that person.

3. Take care of yourself. This sounds simple but many people don’t really look after themselves. Do your best to get the amount of sleep that leaves you feeling your best, cultivate healthy habits, engage in positive self-talk, and cut back on anything that isn’t good for you (smoking, excessive drinking, drug use, fatty foods, etc.)

4. Don’t be afraid to fail. If you look at the history of inventions over the last 200 years or so countless numbers of them began from a failure. We’ve all heard the story of how Edison discovered the light filament as a result of failing more than 1,000 times. We’ve also heard about how the Post-It Note came to be as the result of an industrial adhesive failure. When you fail, you learn valuable lessons and you naturally build your resilience

5. Work on your strengths. If you’re good at something, lean into that and try to find opportunities that allow you to do that. If you have a job in technology but you are a really good writer, try to carve out a few hours a week to write. Finding time to work on your strengths can give you the boost you need when things don’t go your way.

6. Set realistic goals. When it comes to goal setting many people struggle. And that’s because they don’t account for all of the little elements that go into successful goal setting. In a future post, I’ll probably cover how to write an effective SMART goal but, for now, remember that your goal has to be achievable. It also has to have a finite time period in which to achieve it and, it has to be tied to actions you can take in your current situation.

7. Finally, never give up. As long as you have the ability to get out of bed every morning, under your own power, there is no reason to give up! Resiliency is all about digging deep and tapping into your internal reserves of strength, when everything else is going sideways. By not giving up, you’re putting faith in yourself and your ability to handle whatever comes your way. That’s resilience!

What do you think? Do you have any tips you use to build resilience? Share them in the comments!

Have questions about coaching or want some help in developing your resilience? Reach out to me at mm@ClarityCoachingDC.com.

Thanks for stopping by!

LOSS IS NOT LINEAR AND GRIEVING TAKES TIME

Hello! It is mind-boggling to realize it has been 2 years since I last posted. I would like to tell you I was off doing something fabulous but that wasn’t the case.

On June 19th, 2020 my mother told us she was terminally ill and I said goodbye to her on August 29th, 2020. The next six months were spent with my father trying to get him set up to move forward and trying to reconcile the massive loss for myself. Almost two years later, I still grieve every day but in a different way and am able to recall happy times more than lament the sad. That is progress and that is all we can ask for, I think.

If you have stuck with me at all, I sincerely appreciate it and I welcome your comments on this or any post. What topics do you want me to cover? Do you have a question about coaching? Let me know and remember, the clarity you get today helps build the life you want tomorrow.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR MINDSET

Can you change your mindset right now? Yes, you can!

We’ve all heard of the power of positive thinking and these days we call that positive mindset. Mindset is a powerful thing. Consider those days where you wake up late, stub your toe getting dressed, spill coffee down your shirt, forget about an 8am conference call until 8:15, and so on, until your day ends with you in a really bad mood. Now, what about those days where you wake up late, but have laid out your clothes so you don’t have to rush, then you have extra time to find the perfect outfit, you don’t hit a single red light on the way to the office, have a great workday, and fall into bed at the end of the day with a sense of accomplishment and a smile. What is the difference?

It’s probably mindset and how you reacted to the first speed bump of the day. How we deal with setbacks dictate how happy we are, how resilient we are, how much success we have, and how satisfying we find our lives. Mindset is a very powerful tool. The good news is that you can control your mindset. This is worthy of a very lengthy post or video, but here is an infographic with some basic things you can do RIGHT NOW to improve your mindset! Enjoy!

[Original size] Improve Your Mindset Now

PS – because this infographic is embedded as an image, the links don’t work but in case your interested, here you go: