Bouncing Back: How to Build Resilience

Resilience is an important skill to have in your personal life and career path—when a challenge stops you in your tracks, how do you respond? 

Here are some insights into resilience and how to develop it.

What is Resilience Exactly?

The official definition of resilience is:

noun

1.    the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.

2.    ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.

Resiliency is a noun and therefore something you have—it’s a skill that can be learned and practiced. The single most important part of resilience is the moment when you decide whether to react or respond to a situation. If your choice is to respond, you can take advantage of the following information.

How to Build Resilience 

Stanford University and the American Psychological Association have done some science-backed research on how to develop resilience through physical and mental practices. While there is a lot of theory behind resiliency, it’s possible to commit to putting into action many, if not all, of these practices. Here are some areas for your to consider:

1.     Take Care of Your Body

This means reduce stress, get a good night’s sleep, exercise, and eat a well-rounded diet. One of the most effective ways of reducing stress is to do something you love! Spend some time playing a game, chatting with friends, playing a sport, whatever it is that makes you happy!

2.     Identify Your Sense of Purpose in Life

For some, this is a tricky task. What is it that sets your soul on fire? Why does that activity serve you and others around you?

This helps to focus your attention and anchor your activities in something meaningful. When what you do and why you do it are aligned, it’s a lot easier to bounce back when challenges arise.

3.     Establish Goals

Figure out what you want to do and then lay out some SMARRTE (Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Relevant, Timely, Ecological) goals to help you achieve success.

When challenges arise and you’re being called to resiliency, goals are often flexible and always there to help you stay on track (or get back on track) on your path to success.

4.     Develop a Great Circle of Friends (and a Network)

Friends help your resiliency in so many ways! They are there for you when you need to vent about adversities and celebrate successes, they support you and care for you. They want you to bounce back and can often motivate you to be the best version of you.

Your extended network can be leveraged for extra resources you may need to get back on track with your goals. Being resourceful is great for bouncing back! As you shift, you may need to implement other people, services, or products to be successful (this of course relates to specific situations, for example, a project in your workplace).

5.     Embrace Change

It’s inevitable. Change occurs all the time and you’ll become more resilient when you embrace change.

Expect the unexpected and be resourceful. Knowing what may come up (in both the positive and negative sense) will help you adapt to any situation. While the future is not always predictable, simply having resources in place can help you prepare for the moments when adversity occurs and resilience is called for.

6.     Think Solution-Focused and Take Action

In addition to resourcefulness, thinking in a solutions-focused outcome frame will improve resilience. When you approach a challenge with the mindset that there is a solution and you can figure a way out, you’re in a better position to bounce back.

As always, taking action—doing what you say you’ll do—will result in more impact. So when you come up with a plan to bounce back from adversity, follow it up with actually doing the work. This will help build confidence in yourself and you won’t dig a deeper hole of adversity.

7.     Keep Practicing!

Practice your skills to build confidence in yourself. This will take you far when you feel bogged down by challenges and need to be resilient.

 When you practice resilience, it becomes more instinctive and habitual. It’s not always easier to be resilient because the amount of resiliency corresponds to the weight of the challenge BUT your response to challenges can become habitual. Create resiliency and practice it so that you can see the benefits for yourself.

8.     Have Confidence and Be Optimistic.

Confidence in yourself will always help with resilience: if you know you can get through a challenge, you will act promptly and bounce back faster. Confidence in your skills will help you act and get back on track.

Optimism makes adversity lighter! If you feel hopeful, you’re more likely to respond rather than react to challenges and feel motivated to be resilient rather than stew in adversity.

Now What?

Think about it and write. Reflect on these areas of work and be curious about where they fit into your life. Be curious about how you can improve your resiliency by enacting any of these areas and write down your ideas, goals, and resources. A coach is someone who can also support you through goal setting, identifying your values, and building resilience. You have the power to make decisions that will up-level your life!

Be kind. Dream big. Empower yourself.