When something goes wrong, or when you are faced with a challenge, how do you respond?
When you have practiced building your resilience, you can harness an inner strength to help you rebound from a setback or challenge. Otherwise, you might dwell on problems, feel victimized or become overwhelmed. People with resilience do not experience less stress or anxiety than other people do. Instead, they use healthy coping skills to handle difficulties in ways that foster strength and growth, often emerging stronger than they were before. Resilience will not make your problems go away – but it can give you the ability to enjoy the challenge or at least see past it and better manage stress. If you are not as resilient as you would like to be, you can develop and learn skills to become more resilient.
The Elements Essential to Resilience
According to the research of leading psychologist, Susan Kobasa,* the following elements are essential to resilience:
- Challenge – Resilient people view a difficulty as a challenge, not as a paralyzing event. They look at their failures and mistakes as lessons to be learned from, and as opportunities for growth. They do not view them as a negative reflection on their abilities or self-worth.
- Commitment – Resilient people are committed to their lives and their goals, and they have a compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning. Commitment is not just restricted to their work – they commit to their relationships, their friendships, and the causes they care about.
- Personal Control – Resilient people spend their time and energy focusing on situations and events that they have control over. Because they put their efforts where they can have the most impact, they feel empowered and confident. Those who spend time worrying about uncontrollable events can often feel lost, helpless, and powerless to take action.
10 Ways to Build Your Resilience
The good news is that everyone can learn to develop a resilient mindset and attitude. The following practices, added to your daily life, will help you build up your ability to bounce back from the normal and not so normal challenges we all face. Pick one or two of these simple tips to focus on for three weeks and pay attention to improving your ability to meet new challenges with an inner confidence:
- Learn to relax. When you take care of your mind and body, you are better able to cope effectively with challenges in your life. Develop a good sleep routine, try out a new exercise, or use other relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation.
- Practice thought awareness. Resilient people do not let negative thoughts derail their efforts. Instead, they consistently practice positive thinking. This means listening to how you talk to yourself when something goes wrong.
- Edit your outlook. Practice changing the way you think about stressful or challenging situations. Use positive self-talk.
- Learn from your mistakes and failures. Every mistake has the power to teach you something important, so look for the lesson in every situation.
- Choose your response. Remember, we all experience stressful and challenging days, and we all go through our share of crisis. But we have a choice in how we respond: We can choose to react with panic and negativity, or we can choose to remain calm and logical to take control and find a solution. Your reaction is always up to you.
- Maintain perspective. Resilient people understand that although a situation or crisis may seem overwhelming in the moment, it may not make that much of an impact over the long-term. Try to avoid blowing events out of proportion.
- Set yourself some goals. Learn to set SMART, effective personal goals that match your values, and that can help you learn from your experiences.
- Build your self-confidence. Remember, resilient people are confident that they’re going to succeed eventually, despite the setbacks or stresses that they might be facing. This belief in themselves also enables them to take risks. When you develop confidence and a strong sense of self, you have the strength to keep moving forward, to take the risks you need to get ahead.
- Develop strong relationships. People who have strong connections at work are more resistant to stress, and they are happier in their roles. This also goes for your personal life—the more real friendships you develop, the more resilient you are going to be because you have a strong support network to fall back on.
- Be flexible. Resilient people understand that things change, and that carefully made plans may, occasionally, need to be amended or scrapped.
Other Helpful Resources from LinkedIn Learning
What, why, and how to become resilient
Resilience and happiness post-pandemic
Building confidence to deal with challenges
Overcoming all odds
The importance of resilience
Why resilience matters
Defining resilience
Resilience is more than just ruggedness
*The concept of “Hardiness“ was first given by Suzanne C. Kobasa (1979) as a personality style or pattern associated with continued good health and performance under stress. According to her, hardy people are buffered against stressful life situations because they engage in certain affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses. In her foundational paper entitled “Stressful life events, personality, and health: An inquiry into hardiness”, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1979, Suzanne C. Kobasa introduced the concept of psychological hardiness and suggested that hardiness moderates the relationship between stressful life events and illness. Kobasa characterized hardiness as comprising of three components or the 3C’s: Commitment, Control, and Challenge.
