They say when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. In other words, when you face a difficult situation, adopt a positive can-do attitude—not only will you survive the crisis, you will thrive after it.
This is what you call resilience.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from a setback and move forward. It’s important to be resilient because setbacks are inevitable in life. You could lose a job, miss out on a promotion, suffer a big financial loss, or face an expected illness.
Look at how the coronavirus pandemic has turned our lives upside down. It has tested our resilience and made several people and organizations build their resilience.
What are the factors that make us resilient?
How do you develop resilience in the face of adversity? The good news is resilience isn’t something you’re either born with or aren’t. It’s a skill you can cultivate and build with practice.
You might have noticed how some people are reflexively resilient. They can be cool as a cucumber under high-pressure scenarios. You also find individuals who can be called great examples of resilience at work.
They learn the art of resilience not by birth, but by practice. You, too, can cultivate resilience skills through effort and become better at crisis management. A key contributor to resilience is your social support system. When you are supported in your efforts, your mind becomes stronger.
Support from friends and family can help take on challenges and emerge stronger from them no matter what life throws at you.
To build your resilience, it important for you to:
– See yourself and your abilities in a positive light
– Create actionable plans and execute them
– Be self-controlled
– Have good communication skills
– Assume the role of fighters in a crisis instead of behaving like victims
– Have high emotional intelligence and the ability to manage emotions productively
Let us take a look at some ways that you can become increasingly resilient:
Restructuring thoughts
One way is to build resilience is to analyze negative occurrences realistically. Don’t focus on blaming others or losing sleep over what could have been done.
You can’t fix what is broken by spending time thinking about it.
Hence, you need to restructure your thoughts and not consider your challenges as too difficult to overcome or impossible. You need to focus on the positive side of things. (https://harborviewloft.com/)
You must only pay attention to those things that can get you out of negativity.
Once you learn how to develop mental resilience, you will also be able to help others handle challenges better. Motivate people to consider challenges as possibilities.
A resilient person can successfully get others out of a rut and help them see a setback as an opportunity to develop new abilities.
Get Help
A support system is an essential requirement for developing resilience after a crippling event. For instance, you might be able to recover faster from a severe injury when you have friends and family who encourage you to stick to the recovery process.
You need to be surrounded by people who see the bigger picture and help you make things happen.
Discussing your problems or concerns doesn’t make them vanish, but it helps you develop a pragmatic mindset. Discussing might get you clarity about things that are bothering you.
You can only fix things if you know where the fault lies.
Sharing your thoughts with a friend, spouse, or siblings or even your parents will make you realize that you are not alone in this fight.
This access to different viewpoints is likely to offer you a new approach, and one that will eventually help you overcome the setback or recover from the damage, injury, or loss.
Pay attention to things under your control
You might get overwhelmed when faced with a major crisis or an unforeseen catastrophe. You might even hope it’s a bad dream and everything will be back to normal when you wake up. The truth is, it doesn’t work that way.
Hence instead of wishful thinking, you need to take stock of the situation and do what you can to improve the situation. No matter how small or insignificant a step might appear, it can be instrumental in changing the big picture and helping you regain control by building resilience.
You need to focus on dealing with the problems and remain committed to your cause. You need to analyze whatever resources or scope you have.
You must believe in your abilities.
Eventually, you will become resilient enough to successfully reclaim your life’s flow, just the way you desire!
Explore topics such as resilience, self-awareness, self-management, and the meaning of charisma from our Harappa Diaries section and take charge of your growth.