Guidelines to Enhance Resilience

Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from setbacks. When things don’t go according to plan, a resilient person is able to bounce back quickly by acknowledging the situation, reflecting on what they can learn from it and moving forward.

Enhancing Resilience:
Self-awareness
If we know and understand ourselves well, we are better able to prepare and manage ourselves in difficult situations. If you are self-aware; you are able to gauge and understand your emotions (positive and negative emotions). Ask yourself, what am I feeling right now and why? You will then have the wisdom to reflect on what you can learn moving forward.

Support structures
Build yourself a support network of family and friends, coaches, mentors; people who know you well. Communicate with this support structure when you are experiencing difficulty or disappointment. If they know you well, they will know how to support you. However, never be afraid to ask for the support you need. Tell them what they can do to assist. Secondly, talking is a great therapy, just by speaking to someone about the issue, you will feel relief and begin reflecting and processing as part of moving forward.

Coping skills
By nature, humans are survivors and can adapt when we are forced to. However, we don’t have to do it alone. We can and should take advantage of the many stress management tools and strategies that are available to us. Mindfulness and meditation are very useful strategies to manage anxiety, stress and burn out. Take a preventative approach to becoming more efficient at managing adversity and its aftermath by seeking out tools that work for you.

Self-efficacy
It can also be part of human nature to dwell on the negative when faced with disappointment. Although it is important to reflect on what we could do better next time, we shouldn’t spend too much time wallowing in our disappointment. Positive thinking has been proven to stimulate creative thinking processes, therefore allowing us to think in new and innovative ways as part of problem solving. When faced with a setback, challenge yourself to reflect on 3 to 4 past challenges that reflect your ability to achieve. Identify these situations, write them down and reflect on what went well and why.

Resilience is a skill, like any skill, with intentional training and practice, it can be learnt. By enhancing this skill, you will gain more control over your emotions and be able to cope better with life’s ever changing and unpredictable demands. This in turn will enhance your capacity to function more effectively at work and in your personal life.