Powering Your Resilience Takes Intention
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE RESILIENT?
Much is happening today on a global basis and you as leaders are on the front lines. Your decisions and your actions define outcomes. One strategy to meet these changes is to simply toughen up and plow through whatever you face. Another strategy is to intentionally create a sustainable capacity to consciously navigate the tides… to build resilience. This entails pulling over into an eddy and taking stock, thinking about what is happening, what’s working and not working, the impact of your choices and the impact it has on the steering. It’s examining the micro-mechanics of moments in the overall course of your journey without getting derailed by negative emotions. Staying buoyant with positive emotions bolsters resilience. In many empirical studies, Heartmath Institute research shows a strong link between our thoughts, our emotions and outcomes. Resiliency, of which emotional resilience is a component, begins with our thoughts.
Resilient people seem to have greater ability to shift, to adjust, to flex, to pivot. Is this ability inherent as one or a combination of their personality traits? The American Psychological Association categorizes positive psychology as a field of study and much research has been done to forward the exploration of the impact of positive emotions with positive outcomes. Dr. Martin Seligman is considered by many as the founder of the positive psychology movement.
Still, what does resilient mean? I According to Psychology Today, “Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes.”
What are some examples of resilience in life? There are endless resilience examples when you look for them, when you look for the positive.
Conscious Rejuvenation Builds Resilience
How Are You Strengthening Your Resilience?
WHAT ARE THE 5 SKILLS OF RESILIENCE?
There are foundational skills that build capacity and confidence, a sense of control, and an ability to cope with what confronts you. In our experience, the 5 skills of resilience are:
- Notice – be present and recognize any depletion, distraction or derailment
- Reflect – pause to examine and better understand the circumstances, check your thoughts – is the glass half full or half empty?
- Calibrate –look at what you can do to shift your response, to bounce back
- Choose – know what you need to bounce back and take the time to get back on track
- Act – change your thoughts, take actions that support your overall ability to restore your resilience
TWO MORE SKILLS
Two additional resilience skills that bring our list to 7 are…
- Establish – create a support system that helps you with adapting to adversity so that you can overcome diversity…
- Consider – apply wide-ranging solutions for the long-term, which includes re-evaluating, adjusting and expanding your knowledge (of yourself, your environment, your coping mechanisms, and what matters most to you)
Resilience: An Empowered Capacity to Lead and Live
Resilience: Bouncing Back Quickly
HOW IS RESILIENCE DEVELOPED?
We believe resilience is a combination of mindset and skill, both of which can be developed and perfected. Knowing how to build resilience, and in particular how to build resilience at work as a leader for yourself and for your team, has become more important to lead with success.
Building resilience for most of us is like developing a muscle. We know it’s there, yet sometimes we forget. Life can sweep us away and before you know it, we’ve lost our footing on a slippery slope. The good news is you can regain your footing and regain the muscle strength. You can develop resilience.
Here's what The American Psychological Associations offers as ways to build resilience.
Here are a Few Simple Ways to Develop Resilience
~ Depletes & Restores Exercise
- 1Make a list of what depletes you (-).
- Situations
- Circumstances
- Challenges
- Activities
- People
- Anything else that comes to mind
- 2Rate the depletes. For each item on the list of what depletes you, assign a number between 1-10 (10 being high and most draining)
- 3Note the reaction. For each of the depletes (-)
- Write down your thoughts about it/them – be honest
- Read what you wrote
- Notice your reaction (what are you thinking, feeling)
- 4Make a list of what restores you (+).
- Situations
- Circumstances
- Challenges
- Activities
- People
- Anything else that comes to mind
- 5Rate the restores. For each item on the list of what restores you, assign a
number between 1-10 (10 being high and most restorative) - 6Note the reaction. For each of the restores (+)
- Write down your thoughts about it/them – be honest
- Read what you wrote
- Notice your reaction (what are you thinking, feeling)
- 7Select and Commit. You might start with the easier depletes (lower ratings) because this might be an easier launch into negating or removing them.
- Ask yourself, “How can I shift my thoughts about this deplete such that I feel either less drained or more positive about it?”
- Select a restore (+) strategy for each deplete (-)
- Commit to take the action(s)
- Schedule the action, honor the schedule
- Practice positive thinking daily (often) as the deplete shows up
~Gratitude Exercise
How often do you take stock in what’s going right in your life? We as humans are wired to look for threats and prepare to mitigate them. Just as powerful is our ability to shift our perspective and examine what’s working.
- Make a list of all the goodness in your life… personally and professionally.
- Read the list often – daily (and add to it)
- Notice how you feel in response, and the impact on your resilience.
~ Resilience Training
Some organizations offer specific training to develop resilience.
Animate Your Resilience and Your Leadership
A Few Thoughts ~ R.Bach
- Strength within yields strength without
- The iterations of life build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual capacity.
- Resilience is intentional. Resilience is a choice.
- When one has the mindset to thrive, resilience happens.
- Letting go of the unimportant fuels our fortitude, flexibility and ultimately freedom.