Life can be challenging at times. Your ability to bounce back after a setback or hardship determines whether most of your life is enjoyable and productive or anxiety-ridden and frustrating. When challenging experiences inevitably arise, you’ll want to be ready to rise to the occasion.
Resilience is what keeps us going through adversity. The more resilient you are, the quicker you’re able to re-adjust to a situation and move forward in life.
The key to overcoming a setback is seeing it as a challenge instead of a threat.
What are you doing to build your resilience?
- How do you react when something initially begins to trouble you? Maybe you bury your head in the sand and hope it goes away. Perhaps you ignore the situation and pretend it isn’t happening. Or do you worry incessantly about all the possible worst outcomes? * If you’re resilient, you’ll choose to approach the situation head-on and promptly. You’ll define the issue, consider your options, and make a plan. You’ll set out right away to resolve the situation before it becomes a full-blown issue.
*Engage in problem-solving skills. What can you learn from this situation? In some cases, using acceptance as a tool will help you avoid a major meltdown and quickly take control of the situation.
- Approach to past events. Do you try to forget about your prior challenges? Instead, try applying what you learned from them to navigate present or future situations. When you reflect on what you’ve been through, you’ll think about the mistakes you made. But you’ll also be excited about how well you handled some situations and use those same skills again.
*The energy required to try to forget something important draws heavily from your present resilience, wearing it down. Alternatively, focusing your energies on the lessons and skills you’ve learned from past experiences builds your strength.
3. Daily practice. Do you work to accomplish something, however small, each day? Or do you find yourself watching entire days go by while you brood, feel sad, or angry? To improve your resilience, consider each day an opportunity to do something positive, even if it’s just one thing.
*What you do with your life each day provides meaning. This might be something as simple as going for a walk or cleaning the living room on a day off. Today, your practice could even be starting or finishing a book or calling a friend you haven’t talked to in ages.
4. Your support network. Resilient individuals build a supportive system of people they can visit, call, talk to, and turn to whenever they hit troubled waters. Do you have plenty of friends and family to call on if you need something?
*If you feel like you’re all alone, start building your support network today by setting a goal to make one new friend within the next month.
5. Who matters to you most? Do you treat yourself as if you’re the most important person in your life? When you take care of your own needs, you’ll be more resilient when a crisis strikes. If your health and living situation are at the top of your priority list, you’ll be prepared to face any hardship, be it emotional or physical.
* Taking the time to keep yourself in tip-top physical and mental shape builds your resilience in trying situations and events.
6. Challenges, setbacks, and hardships will invariably arise in your life from time to time. But if you face situations immediately and use your strengths from previous experiences, you will continually build your resilience for the future.
Do one small thing for yourself each day, and before you know it, you’ll be able to weather any storm with ease!
