You didn’t get the promotion you worked so hard for, you’ve injured yourself at the gym, and now you’re coming down with the flu. Why is it that everything happens at once? Sometimes it just feels like everything’s going wrong. It’s at these times that you need to know some of the most effective strategies for building resilience
Resilience is your ability to bounce back from setbacks and to keep going through difficult situations. Let’s face it, no matter what line of work you’re in, there will always be setbacks along the way. Whether being in a job you hate is grinding you down or your seriously clashing with the new boss the most resilient people are able to focus on what they’ve learned from these challenges and will keep pushing forwards.
Companies want to know that the people they hire will be resilient enough to deal with the changes and challenges that can happen in any workplace. What’s more, developing your resilience is a must for the sake of your own health and happiness.
Here are the 17 most effective strategies for building resilience
1. Focus on the lessons
Turn your wounds into wisdom. – Oprah Winfrey
Rather than focusing on what’s gone wrong, instead look at what you can learn from the situation. Whether it’s learning a new skill or learning something about yourself, we often learn much more when things go wrong, from the setbacks, and the mistakes, than we do from the things go right.
2. Stay Connected and talk it out
When things unravel it’s easy to pull away. You stop talking to colleagues, friends and even family. But this is a strategy which will likely lead to more problems down the road.
Bottling things up and locking yourself away isn’t good for your stress levels since you’re likely to spend time blaming yourself for what might have gone wrong and obsessing over the situation. Instead, make time for friends and family who can help you maintain a positive outlook and take your mind off things.
If things are going wrong at work, speaking to your boss about it sooner rather than later is essential. They’ll be in a better position to support you and what’s more, this will prevent things escalating and causing a potential crisis.
3. Avoid the storm in a teacup
On your way home from work you realize that you’ve made an error on a report that you’ve sent out. You start running through the possibilities of what might happen and spend the whole evening thinking about it. By morning, you’re heading into work fully convinced that you’re about to get the sack. Then your boss calls you in for a meeting… and you know what’s coming…
Or do you?
It’s easy to build things up in your head when you don’t have an outside perspective that might be more objective. Small problems can quickly become huge issues leading to overstress.
Avoid building things up in your own mind and instead, speak to someone about the situation.
TIP: If you can’t help running through the worst case scenario, spend time writing down what steps and actions you would take were it to actually happen. This will help you to feel more in control of the situation.
4. Practice self-love
Self-love is about appreciating yourself. If you appreciate yourself then you will do the things that are right for. This means, taking actions towards the goals you set for yourself, eating well, exercising and generally being kind to yourself. Doing these things generally will leave you feeling stronger as a person which in turn will make you more able to bounce back when things go wrong.
5. Focus on your health and fitness
According to research people who are physically strong also tend to be more resilient and taking part in regular exercise can greatly help with emotional resilience in very stressful situations.
6. Focus on your goals
Just because things aren’t going well in one area of your life, this doesn’t mean that everything is wrong. Having goals that span a range of areas no matter how small can give you something positive to focus on through tough times. Accomplishing the small goals you set yourself will give you a positive sense of accomplishment which will help you to stay motivated.
7. Maintain a positive mindset
Your brain is like a heat-seeking missile for problems, for bad things, and for negativity. This is just the way humans are built. Because your brain is trying to protect you from threats, and it must identify the threats if you’re going to deal with them.
But this can lead to overly pessimistic thinking, which is the last thing you need when you’re going through a rough patch. In fact, what you need is the complete opposite. When things go wrong, you need a strong dose of positivity to help you get through it.
Studies have shown that pessimistic people have poorer health over time, compared to optimistic people and what’s more, studies have also shown that being positive in your outlook leads to better performance.
Beat your brain by making a point of looking for the positive and practicing daily gratitude.
8. Get enough sleep
Have you ever tried to function on very little sleep? Then you know how important it is to get a healthy amount of shut-eye.
Lack of sleep not only has a major impact on your productivity levels, but it also impairs your cognitive and motor skills as much as alcohol does!
Sleep deprivation makes it more challenging to make decisions, it can lead to depression and studies have found that lack of quality sleep leads to less resilience, emotionally and physiologically.
If you want to be more resilient and able to take on the world, then getting quality sleep needs to be a priority.
9. Take a break or holiday
Sometimes you just need to get away from things and take a break. Whether it’s a short break away from an immediate stressful situation or a much needed holiday, breaks are necessary for resilience as well as performance.
There are lots of ways a break can help you be more resilient. Firstly, taking a break will give you some distance from the situation which can help you to be more objective. You’re also likely to come up with new and novel solutions to any problems.
Secondly, if you’ve been going through a particularly tough time then it’s likely that your sleep will be impacted due to your increased levels of stress. Taking a longer break or holiday can give you the opportunity to relax and get some much needed sleep in the process.
10. Forgive yourself and be kind to yourself
We all have that voice in our heads that can turn against us. If you’ve made a mistake then it’s common to spend time blaming yourself. Apart from he fact that this won’t resolve the issue or make anything better, beating yourself up mentally and blaming yourself over and over will only lower your self-esteem.
Instead of beating yourself up, forgive yourself and practice positive self talk. Remind yourself that you are capable and able. This approach will help you gain confidence over time and you will become much more resilient in the process.
11. Resolve conflicts
There’s nothing worse than having unresolved conflict. Whether it’s with a colleague or a friend, the situation can wreak havoc on you mentally and leads to more stress.
Clearing the air early on will prevent things from festering and turning into much bigger issues or disagreements down the line.
Unresolved conflicts take up mental and emotional bandwidth. Dealing with conflict head on will make you feel more in control and in a position of strength. Regardless of the outcome once the conflict has been resolved, then you’ll be finally able to move on emotionally, feeling stronger.
12. Practice mindfulness and meditation
Like sleep mindfulness and meditation has many benefits with one of the benefits being improved sleep. In addition to this, meditation can reduce stress , improve your alertness and focus and strengthen your immune system. All things which can come in handy when going through a difficult time.
13. Enjoy interests and hobbies
Whatever you might be going through at work, it’s important to maintain some balance in your life, and staying involved in your interests and hobbies is a great way to blow off steam, mentally relax, and be kind to yourself.
Taking part in activities you enjoy can lead to the release of endorphins, the hormone associated with happiness. And the happier you are, the better you’ll be able to deal with challenges and setbacks.
14. Start writing
Journal gives you an opportunity to review the situation, express your thoughts freely and simply get everything out of your system. It can be a source of stress relief as well as helping you to look at things objectively and come up with possible solutions.
Journalling for as little as 10 minutes a day can be beneficial.
15. Step out of your comfort zone and face your fears
If you’ve ever successfully done something that’s far out of your comfort zone, then you would have felt the immense feeling of pride, happiness, and even euphoria that goes with it.
Facing your fears and getting out of your comfort zone isn’t easy, but doing it will help you develop more strength and confidence as you realise what you’re capable of.
The more practiced you are at confronting your fears and uncomfortable situations, the more resilient you’ll become.
16. Learn from the past
With every situation that arises, god and bad there’ll always be something you can learn. Where your resilience is concerned, try and take notice of what strategies have worked for you in the past, how have you dealt with situations before and apply those learnings to your current challenges.
As well as recognising what works, it’s also valuable to identify what doesn’t work for you and if there are any specific situations or environments where you find you are less able to cope than usual.
By doing this, you can either try to avoid particular stressors if possible or make a plan to develop the skills that will help you manage those situations more effectively.
17. Embrace change
The only thing that’s certain in life is that change happens. And change is one of the biggest causes of stress for most pf us. You might be going through a major change at work like redundancy, experiencing a change in your relationship, or a change in your environment like moving house or starting a new job.
These things cause anxiety and definitely require a level of resilience to get through.
Any level of change requires you to be resilient and the bigger the change, the bigger the challenge.
Fighting against change will only lead to more stress. So, if you want to know the most effective way to build resilience, it’s the acceptance of change.
When you embrace change and accept that it’s going to happen, you can see that noting is permanent.
From the best time in your life to the worst, all good and bad things will come to an end.
So, whatever challenges you might be facing now or in the future, the good news is that the next big change is probably just around the corner.
