7 ways to Strengthen Resilience
Yes, life is uncertain. There is very little that occurs to us on a day-to-day basis that we can control. Yet, we do our best to to reduce our feeling of vulnerability and restore some feeling of certainty. The truth is we can’t control much at all in our external environment. Life can be messy, chaotic and even unfair. We may be hit with health issues, redundancy, divorce, death of loved ones, being passed over for promotion, losing our financial security or conflict in our work environment. It’s easy to fall victim to what occurs. The only thing we control is oiur response to what comes at us. This is where resilience comes in. Resilience is the ability to bounce back after life’s inevitable setbacks. It’s the ability to put things into perspective without diminishing them. How do we develop and increase our emotional resilience? Here are a few of the principles that have worked for me and my clients, resulting in the ability to handle some of the tough challenges life throws at us: Find your Purpose. What is your reason for being? What gives your life meaning and fulfillment? What is the contribution you believe you can make in your life? It may come directly from the products or services you provide either direct to clients or to your employer. Perhaps there was something missing in your childhood that you are driven to rectify. Or maybe there is a clear notion of the legacy you want to leave and how you want to be remembered. Your Purpose will give you an emotional connection to something much larger than you.When life throws its inevitable curve balls at you, Purpose provides a bigger context for the threat. Barriers become challenges which can be overcome. Purpose provides the energy to move beyond the immediate setbacks allowing you to make your unique contribution. Develop a Positive Mindset. Not long ago, the widely-held view was that people were born optimists … or not. However, according to Shawn Achor set out in his presentation “The Happy Secret to Better Work”, optimism can be learned. It is a life-critical skill. 90% of our happiness is predicted not by our external world, but by the way your brain processes it. Only 25% of job success is predicted by IQ. 75% is predicted by our optimism levels, our social support and our ability to see stress as a challenge. Positive thinking is strongly linked with increased performance.Now, it is accepted that we can develop a positive mindset. We can increase our optimism by flipping situations to find the silver lining. When we practice gratitude each day, we basically rewire our brain. Just 3 different things that you appreciate each day for 28 days! Finally, making useful or productive mistakes contributes to a positive mindset. This technique is about letting go of blame and shame around making mistakes. Instead, we look at the mistake and ask “What can I learn from this so that I have a different outcome next time?” We take the lesson and let the mistake go. Practiced regularly, these three techniques will shift your mindset over time to one that is automatically more positive. Let go of Perfection. Many of us have been strongly influenced by perfectionist parents or caregivers. The ideal is what we aim for and nothing less will do. The problem is we can’t define the ideal. All we know is that we haven’t achieved it. When we expect our performance or our lives to be perfect, we are bound to be disappointed. The usual outcome is dissatisfaction and self-doubt which reinforce the feeling of not being good enough. It is hard to be resilient if we don’t believe in ourselves. Replace your inner critic with a Master Mind group. We all have an inner voice that provides commentary on the world around us. For many of us that voice is critical and winds up undermining us. We get ticked off for not doing the ‘right’ thing. We compare ourselves to others and either become arrogant or jealous as a result. We may give, give, give and then become resentful of being exploited, playing out the martyr.Believe it or not, this inner voice has our wellbeing in mind. It might be attempting to keep us safe from hurt, from being used, from failure and rejection. However, what it really does is undermine our possibilities by constantly sniping at us, wearing us down.How much more useful would it be to have an internal Master Mind group of all the people you respect and appreciate – alive or dead – whose voices could give you support and constructive advice. Their perspectives will help you open up possibilities. Make a list of all the people whose sage advice you would love to have access to. What would they say to you about whatever situation you’re currently experiencing. Make a habit of asking them each day (again that habit thing) and over time, you will internalise their voices. If you’ve had a great mentor or coach, you’ll know what I mean. After a while, you start hearing his or her voice in your head providing another perspective on the situation you’re currently experiencing. Try it.In addition to your internal Master Mind group, develop an external support group to provide a sounding board and objective advice when you need it. If they can also cheer you on where that’s valuable, even better. Separate your feelings from reality. We each have our personal unique view of the world. Our brain filters the 11 billion pieces of information we’re exposed to in each minute (no I have no idea how the neuroscientists arrived at that figure) down to 150 that we take in then down to 5-9 that we actively pay attention to. We eliminate most of what we see, hear and experience. How do we do that? What is the criteria we use? The answer is that our amazing mind has developed a filtering system based on