Navigating your career is rarely smooth sailing. Anyone who has pursued professional growth knows that there are disappointments and challenges along the way. On the road to success, one must brave rejection, uncertainty, and vulnerability.
Growth is not for the faint-hearted. To persevere, you must strengthen this essential skill-- resilience.
The current pandemic is an opportunity to build your capacity to thrive in the face of adversity. It is a chance to develop inner strength, competency, and flexibility. In Part One of this two-part series, you'll learn what resilience is as well as the characteristics of highly resilient people. In Part Two, I'll share Four Pillars of Resilience that you can reflect on to support your efforts.
Part One: What is Resilience?
Simply speaking, resilience is the capacity to rise above adversity. A more formal definition tells us that "resilience is the process of, capacity for, and outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging circumstances" (Garmezy and Masten, 1991).
Adaptation is our default as human beings. Resilience is inherent and available to us all. That said, those who develop this capacity do so by cultivating helpful thoughts, beliefs, and actions.
Resilience is associated with inner strength, competence, optimism, flexibility, and the ability to cope well when faced with adversity.
Research has shown that highly resilient people:
Don't let adversity define them.
Find resilience by moving toward a goal beyond themselves.
Transcend pain and grief by perceiving bad times as temporary.
Believe in themselves AND something larger than themselves.
Resilience is not a trait that some people have, and others don't. We can all bounce back from adversity stronger. Whether you become resilient or not depends mostly on how your life unfolds. Resilience is forged through adversity and challenge. If you haven't had many difficulties in life, you won't have had as many opportunities to strengthen this capacity.
Resilience is earned, and it leaves scars. But what it offers in return is an enduring gift-- a reminder that you can handle the hard stuff in life and, despite everything, flourish.
One of the primary outcomes of my program is increased resilience. Through the program, participants come to believe in themselves and make progress towards their goals. Sitting shotgun with my clients as they do the work gets me out of bed every day feeling energized and purposeful. If you want to boost your resilience and you're ready to start planning and acting, let's chat. Book a complimentary discovery call with me.
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