“We can’t control the winds, but we can learn to direct the sails.”
We are living in an unpredictable world. We are faced every day with uncertainty and new challenges in numerous ways. These situations require adaptability and flexibility from us, to focus on what is in the circle of our influence and not to be let down by the circumstances.
There is nothing we need more these days than self-confidence, unshakable faith and the feeling of absolute certainty that our resilience, our inner strength will steer our ship through the restless waters until we reach a safe harbour.
What is resilience? Resilience is the ability to recover from and adjust easily to misfortune and change.
Resilience is not only necessary in our everyday life, but we also heavily rely on it in our professional lives. Our resilience at the workplace is our capability to maintain high performance and positive well-being in the face of adverse conditions. It helps us to develop protective factors against stress, capacity to respond to pressure and the demands of constantly changing priorities, home office and a heavy workload.
Resilience is a combination of personal characteristics and skills; it is not a personality trait we are born with.
I definitely was not born with it. I had to learn it the hard way.
A few years ago, on a bright sunny day I landed in Malaysia with high expectations. I was picturing our family to settle quickly and effortlessly in our new environment; making new connections and friends; and to continue my career where I left off back in Europe.
But reality had something else in store for me. A few months later I felt that my dreams of a purposeful life were shattered. I felt lonely, helpless and depressed. Not only did I not reach any of my goals, but I also lost my motivation and let go of myself. I felt stuck.
When I was at my lowest, I accidentally stumbled upon a book on resilience. I could not put it down.
It pointed to the fact that resilience is built by attitudes and behaviours that can be adopted and cultivated by anyone.
Fast-forward a few months, many books and courses later, my old, purposeless self was nowhere to be found.
Today I feel better than ever. I am confident that with my newly learned skills I will be able to deal with everything that life throws at me.
Let me share with you the ideas that had the biggest impact on me:
I have learned to control my emotional state, not to feel disappointed when things turn out differently to how I expected them to be. The result? Less tears and drama.
I have applied my knowledge on behavioural habits, and I was finally able to get rid of some of my bad habits and make new, healthy ones stick. Half a year later I was running my first half-marathon, something that felt impossible before.
I recognised the thinking traps that were holding me back and learned to avoid them.
Most importantly, I have learned to trust myself. Today I know that if I fall down, I can stand up. I want the same for you.
An efficient way to boost resilience is through 1on1 coaching, which can be done both online and face to face. Coaching offers a personalized, highly targeted approach to support the client’s needs. It can be done both face to face and online.
Another powerful way to boost resilience is through workshops and trainings. I have a series of bite-size sessions in my training portfolio, addressing all key areas contributing to resilience in the workplace, that can be fitted to the organization’s needs and can be delivered both online and in a physical classroom setting.
The key to success lies in the implementation and execution of strategies and techniques learned. As the Japanese proverb goes, “vision without action is a daydream”.
Most of us are not born with great resilience. We are evolved to instinctively react to our environments. But we can learn to manage and overwrite our unhealthy, natural inclinations and wisely choose responses that serve us better. Responses, that are building us up instead of tearing us down.
What you need to recognize is that resilience is not only a nice to have, but it is an absolute must if we want to be the captain of our ship.
Take the first steps in the process of gaining greater resilience, follow me on Instagram @theresiliencegirl for resilience tips and techniques.
Shared by Andrea Grill who is an Executive and Life Coach. She can be contacted at coachandreagrill@gmail.com