Resilience: Weather the Storm
Weather the storm means to deal with a difficult situation without being harmed or damaged too much. When a ship is likely to encounter a storm, it can do one of two things. It can take refuge in a sheltered bay, or it can move through the storm. In both cases the captain decides, based on understanding the ship and the crew’s resilience.
There is a popular scenic spot on the Southern Coast of Australia, off the side of the Great Ocean Road, called The 12 Apostles. These are limestone clusters in a random pattern, that if you use your imagination look like people figures. For many years I had wanted to visit these, as I had seen them in travel books, also they fascinated me. Well, eventually I got to see them. When I got there, I discovered that some had eroded away to the extent that only eight remained. They had lost size; the resilience of the limestone was not enough to hold back the continuous taunts of the relentless Southern Ocean swells.
“Life will eat away at us if we let it”
Resilience is a state of physical, emotional, and social congruence, in which you can come up against life’s challenges and remain whole, undefeated, and growing. Resilience is more than returning to the same as you were before, it’s becoming stronger so when you are faced with a similar situation again, you will be better equipped for it.
The 3 states that are required for resilience:
· Physical
- Mind and Body
· Emotional
- Feelings and Spirit
· Social
- Relationships and Associations
Even when we pay attention to all these areas of life, we can still find ourselves becoming blindsided because of things that we had not anticipated. An example of this would be, if you had a full week and then on top of it was lumped an unforeseen crisis. You were already exhausted and unable to rest and now are faced with something out of your control to deal with. Something will give and your resilience will determine how you are affected by it. Can we avoid these things that blindside us? No. But we can prepare for them in order to weather the storm.
Here are twelve tips to help build resilience:
1. Life is about the choices we make, own your emotions and decisions
2. A resilient mindset is about believing you can
3. Create space in your schedules and diary, for the unexpected
4. Take time to rest, reflect, relax, and refuel
5. Ponder worst case scenarios and potential responses
6. Exercise in rhythm with your age and circumstance
7. Pay it forward and help others
8. Build a network of honest, transparent, and supportive relationships
9. Be self-aware, identify your strengths and where you add the most value
10. Have the hard discussions rather than avoiding them
11. Maintain a posture of learning and growth
12. Be grateful and appreciative of what you have
These tips won’t prevent the unexpected from happening, but they will lay a good foundation and a level of resilience to build from.
My 5 Learnings:
· Resilience is refined by exposure to experiences
· I could be blindsided by any issue if my physical, emotional, and social states are not in check
· Resilience enables me to have capacity where I might not normally have it
· Creating space in my schedule is important in increasing my capacity
https://www.effectiveinfluence.com/blog/create/space
· I can learn, and grow from experiences that challenge and push me
By maintaining regular disciplines and forming habits from the twelve tips, you will lay a good foundation from which to build resilience.
My 3 Questions for you:
· When do you create space to rest, reflect, relax, and refuel?
· Are there some hard conversations you need to have?
· Do you have space in your day for unexpected situations?
“Truth be told, you will never really know just how strong and adamant you are unless adversity strikes. Then you learn courage, you build resilience, you learn to persevere, you build character.”
T. Whitmore
If you need help with building resilience, or if you have questions, please talk to me. I would be happy to chat with you and help.
Remember daily to, “Find value in your influence”
Written By: Paul Fawcett.
