Bouncing Back: Ten Resiliency Builders for Making a Good Life Great!
While this is sound advice and the simple secret to persevering toward success, it can be difficult to fall seven times, or hundreds of times more than that, in a lifetime, and find the strength to get back up. How do the successful people in life manage to keep pressing forward after sometimes seemingly insurmountable setbacks?
The Resiliency Advantage
Resiliency, the ability to recover quickly from misfortune, adversity, or a disruption in your life, without being overwhelmed, or emotionally harmed, is the one trait that’s common in all successful individuals. Being able to get right back up on that horse, after being thrown, takes an inner strength, a resiliency, that will drive you to not just finish the race, but win, place, or show.
Everyone has the ability to bounce back when set-backs and crises occur. You see it in children, learning to ride a bike, or the athlete who keeps trying to achieve a tough goal. Throughout history those who achieved success have also forged a trail littered with failed attempts. It’s staggering to think about how many great people would not have accomplished great deeds, discovered lands, or invented those everyday things that we have come to take for granted-cars, electricity, new ways of communicating, the list goes on and on without the ability to bounce back after failure.
If you’ve experienced defeat, or setbacks, in the workplace, or your personal life, don’t succumb to adversity. Cultivate your resilient nature, and try again. Here are ten practices you can incorporate in your daily living, which will help you build the resiliency necessary to achieve, and make your good life great!
Be Flexible-Change is Part of Life
Life is filled with uncertainties. There will be countless occasions when you’ll need to “drop back and punt”, reassess your route to the end goal, as circumstances change. Always be open to the possibility that you may need to scrap your current plans and start over, or change direction. Remember there are many paths up a mountain and several ways to attain your goals and dreams.
Make Connections-Build Relationships
Not only are strong relationships and connections essential for networking and finding support for your ideas, but, countless studies show people who build strong interpersonal relationships with colleagues and in their personal lives, are much happier individuals. Having a strong support system gives you the strength and self-worth you need to take risks and move forward into the unknown. Develop friendships through compassion and empathy, both in and out of the workplace.
Stay Healthy-Exercise Good Habits
Tweet ThisPractice Mindfulness-Achieve Balance
In the same way, your body needs to rest and recover after a workout, so does your mind. Take the time to calm your thoughts, focus on the here and now, and practice being in the moment. Go for a walk in nature, or sit in silence. Use this time to clear your head and then set your intentions for your day.
Focus on Optimism
When things aren’t going your way and life seems to be throwing you more curveballs than usual, getting caught up in negative stinking thinking comes easily. Learn what triggers your negativity. Are you tired? “Hangry” (hungry-angry), or overwhelmed? Take the necessary steps to regroup and change those negative thoughts into a more optimistic and positive script. Step away, cultivate mindfulness, and regroup, if necessary.
Look for the Lesson
Famed writer and British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said “There is No Education Like Adversity”. Don’t waste your set-backs. Take the time to find the lesson in each attempt at success. Coaches review game tapes for a reason. Find out where you can improve and move forward. Learn from your mistakes, develop foresight, make each attempt count and you’ll be rewarded.
Choose Your Response-Take Decisive Action
Everyone experiences crises from time to time, some more catastrophic than others. From dilemma to disaster, you can choose the way you respond. Knee-jerk responses almost always make a bad situation worse. Panic and negativity are the mark of the knee-jerk response. Cooler heads prevail for a reason. Stop, reframe your crisis more positively and you’ll be able to move forward with conviction.
Take a Minute-Understand
In that same vein, learn how pausing for the cause can help you understand when things aren’t going your way. Those who are persistent in achieving their goals also understand that it’s easy to become overwhelmed by situations, crises, and even the process itself. Avoid making a mountain out of a molehill and learn to take a minute. Put the events in their true perspective. You’ll soon see things as they really are and overcome this momentary bump in the road.
Commit to Value-Based Goals
Commit to goals that match your personal core values. When that which you want to achieve is rooted in your belief of what’s truly important, it holds a sacred place in your heart. No one and nothing can get in the way of the end goal you wish to achieve, no matter how long it might take, or how many setbacks you experience, when you value and believe what you’re doing has purpose.
Nurture Your Confidence
Resilient people believe in their success. They’re confident that they will achieve the goal they have set, no matter how many setbacks they encounter, or how long it will take. Develop confidence in yourself and your project. Rely on the strength of your relationships to bolster your self-confidence, should you find yourself wavering. Take a moment to review all of your successes to date, related to your project, or not. Remind yourself that you have what it takes to realize a successful outcome, no matter what.
Look at the world today and you’ll realize, resiliency is in all of us. Epic failures turned into glowing achievements all throughout history. So go ahead, fall down and accept that moment of misfortune. Then, get back up, learn from your experience and forge ahead toward your ultimate goal of making your good life GREAT!
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