The Question isn’t How Resilient Are You?
In the film ‘Rocky Balboa’ 2006 there is a great scene where Rocky is talking to his son that feels overshadowed by his famous father. He tells his son that the world isn’t sunshine & rainbows and that nothing will hit as hard as life. Rocky finishes his inspirational speech by telling his son that It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep movin’ forward.
Everyone that saw that film wouldn’t have failed to feel the message of resilience, but that’s the stuff of Hollywood. For us mere mortals that have been locked-down, possibly losing & then hunting for a job, or going through one of the toughest stresses of all – financial uncertainty. How do we keep moving forward?
Let’s not begin with the advice from the internet or the experts. Instead, with what you do now. You have developed a resilience. Though some days you’d rather pull the duvet over your head and forget the world. What 3 things do you do now to be resilient? To get back up when life has knocked you down with a telling off from your boss, a cancelled order from your client, or another bank letter arriving in the post.
3 Things
For me, the 3 things I rely on are:
1. My partner – a problem halved is a problem shared.
2. My office walls are littered with letters, drawings, & words ‘you can do it’ from family & friends.
3. All those phrases, quotes, & images we see on Linkedin, & other social media I print. Then I leave that folder on my office chair and it is that which I look at before I sit down for the day.
Our first step to building the resilience muscle is to recognise what we already do and do more of it because it works. The second step is to return to the internet and the experts for their advice because we need to exercise our resilience muscle. But there is no point in demanding more of your muscles when you are in a triathlon. It is the work before that is important.
Similar to our resilience muscle. It’s not when life has knocked us down that we start seeing how strong the muscle is, we need to exercise and build it ready for those times. The way to do this is by having the strategies in place that will help.
Firstly, the 3 things that we do, and secondly I challenge you to try one other thing this week that could become your fourth strategy for picking you up when you get knocked down. You probably know what they are. Just in case; Phone your best friend, meditate, go for a walk, get some big pens & an A3 sheet & write a lot, phone a parent, swim/run/gym…
The question isn’t – How resilient are you? The question is How good is the plan you have put in play that will help you to be resilient when you most need it?
Written by Darren A. Smith for The Grocer.
