“We all need resilience to live a fulfilling life. With resilience, you’ll be more prepared to take on challenges, to develop your talents, skills, and abilities so that you can live with more purpose and more joy.”– Eric Grietens, ‘Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life’
Resilience is important to surviving and thriving in the workplace. It should not be mistaken for an ability to not let stress and failure affect you, it is quite the opposite. It is about using stressful work situations to your advantage; to use them as an opportunity to grow. Therefore, to be resilient, you must allow situations to affect you, but not to break you. Become like bamboo; flexible but tough! Resilience is the old cliché; you are defined not by how many times you fall, but how many times you get up again and keep going.
Here are a few tips on how to give your personal workplace resilience a bit of a leg up!
1. Learn from Mistakes
Mistakes are great! No really. I mean, we shouldn’t strive to make mistakes, but they should certainly be valued when they do happen. They should not be feared, ignored or covered up. If you do make a mistake you must make a conscious effort to use it as a positive; an opportunity to learn. It is very easy to become defensive or to wallow in pity for ourselves when we make a wrong turn; no need! Instead fashion them into a springboard for greater success.
2, Focus on Your Wins
There’s a thing that we do that is kind of odd when you consider it. We might have ninety-nine successes in a day and one failure… and the thing we tend to focus on is, indeed, that slightly rubbish 1%. We define the success of that day with the not so good bit. So, take some time to focus on the good. When you get to the end of your day, consciously take a few moments to think about all the great stuff you did… that’s the important stuff.
3. Build a Support Network
Not only is it important to have strong relationships within all the areas of your life, but it is essential that you take time to really cherish and nurture those relationships. Good relationships are vital to giving you a strong foundation upon which to build confidence and trust. Make the effort, go that extra inch for the important people in your life. It might be as simple as offering your colleague a cup of tea or taking 5 minutes out of your day to ask how somebody is and listen to them… really listen. These little things add up to a strong friendship for both people involved. It also means (as an added bonus) that you have someone to vent to when your day has been a little tough. And be assured, venting to a safe pair of ears is extremely important; built up pressure is no good to anyone!
4. Be Optimistic
Optimism and positivity must not be underrated. Even if you do not feel that these come naturally to you, you must try and think in this way anyway. Again, faux optimism will feel odd and artificial to begin with, but once you see the effects of decisive positivity, you will be inspired to continue.
5. Don’t Create Drama
Wildfire does not require fuel! Often, when a situation flares up at work, it will either spiral out of control, or resolve satisfactorily, based on our reaction. What tricky circumstances do not require is extra drama. So, if such a time springs itself on you, take a deep breath and just take a second to consider what the most useful reaction would be; both for you and the other parties involved.
6. Belief in Yourself
Each time you let a mistake get in your head, you add a drop of doubt into your perception of your own abilities. Self-trust, boldness and conviction are qualities that lead to resilience and, ultimately, success. These, again, are not things that necessarily come naturally, you must make a conscious effort to be bold, or decisive, or trusting… these might seem unnatural to begin with, but exercise them often enough and they will eventually become part of your process.
These are just a handful of ways in which you can continue to build up your resilience. In a nutshell though, all you really need is positivity. If you walk though life with a conscious attitude to turn all situations into opportunities for growth and positivity, then resilience will come to you in no time at all.
By Chris Thomson
Self-Love is also a great way to work towards resilience… 7 Daily Practices for Self-Love
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