🧭The 6 Skills for Resilience

Good Day, and welcome to The Growth Compass. We are that great, long walk in nature helping you refresh your mind and body before you take on the rest of the week.

Here’s where we’re headed today:

• Confucius on resilience

• 6 skills needed for resilience

• 3 amazing stories of how your inner circle can make a difference

• Adam Grant on resilience

Confucius on Resilience

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Confucius

The 6 Skills Needed for Resilience

What Resilience is: Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks, adapt to change, and thrive in the face of adversity.

Why Resilience Matters: Resilience matters because it empowers you to withstand life's challenges, learn from setbacks, and ultimately lead a more fulfilling and successful life. Growth doesn’t happen without resilience.

1. Self-Awareness: Knowing yourself is fundamental to resilience. Understand your strengths, weaknesses, values, and emotional triggers. This awareness allows you to recognize when you're facing a challenge and how it might affect you emotionally and behaviorally, serving as a crucial first step in developing resilience.

2. Self-Regulation: Your ability to regulate your emotions and control impulsive reactions is pivotal in resilience. Emotional regulation helps you manage the intense emotions that often accompany adversity, preventing you from becoming overwhelmed. Impulse control ensures that you respond thoughtfully and rationally to challenges, rather than reacting impulsively in the heat of the moment.

3. Self-Efficacy and Confidence: Believing in your own abilities is a key aspect of resilience. Your self-efficacy and confidence provide the motivation and determination necessary to face and overcome obstacles. When you're confident in your capacity to handle adversity, you're more likely to persist in your efforts to overcome it.

4. Optimism: A positive outlook is a potent resilience booster for you. Optimism involves viewing setbacks as temporary and specific, rather than permanent and pervasive. This mindset can help you maintain hope and perseverance when dealing with adversity. Being optimistic means you're more likely to believe you can overcome challenges, which fuels your resilience.

5. Reaching Out (Support and Relationships): Human connection is a vital component of your resilience. Reaching out to others for support, whether it's friends, family, or a support network, can provide you with emotional assistance, practical help, and a sense of belonging during challenging times. Strong social connections act as a buffer against stress and are an invaluable resource for building and maintaining your resilience.

6. Rest and Recovery: Resilience doesn't mean constantly pushing through adversity without rest. Rest and recovery are integral to your resilience as they allow you to recharge physically and mentally. Adequate rest helps prevent burnout and ensures you have the energy and clarity to effectively cope with ongoing challenges.

3 Strategies to Be Resilient

Below is a summary and a link to one of my favorite Ted Talks on resilience. It discusses the three secrets of resilient people, and it is moving, personal, and informative. If you have the time, it is worth the listen. Regardless, I have summarized the key points that you should think about when trying to build resilience in yourself or others.

Strategy 1: Embrace the Inevitability of Suffering - Resilient individuals understand that suffering is an inescapable part of the human experience. Rather than asking, "Why me?" they accept that adversity is universal. This recognition grants them the strength to face life's challenges head-on, knowing they are not alone in their struggles.

Strategy 2: Choose Your Focus Wisely - Resilience is not about ignoring the negative but rather directing your attention to what you can change. Learn to appraise situations realistically and concentrate on actionable aspects within your control. By consciously tuning into the positive amidst adversity, you can shift your mindset from despair to hope.

Strategy 3: Ask, "Is This Helping or Harming Me?" - One of the most powerful questions in building resilience is asking, "Is what I'm doing helping or harming me?" Whether it's forgiving past transgressions, managing your social media consumption, or deciding on that extra glass of wine, this question places you back in the driver's seat of your life. It empowers you to make conscious choices that lead to personal growth and healing.

Takeaway: 

• Resilience isn't an inherent trait; it's a mindset and a set of actions that anyone can embrace when life takes an unexpected turn.

• Two of the key aspects here are mindfulness and focus, which comprise the ability to be aware of how you are feeling, where you are focusing, and asking yourself questions in the moment.

Adam Grant on Resilience

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