Building Resilience
A photo I took somewhere in the Namibian desert
Q1 is done and dusted! As a proponent of self-awareness, I hope we’re all taking a day or two to reflect on the past 3 months to identify what we truly need - rest, delegation, support, coaching, new challenges etc - so that we take control of our time. Don’t settle for surviving when you could be thriving!
Personally, I’m quite energetic and focused based on the disciplines I practise, however, the space where I find myself having to dig deep is that of resilience. Building new things, propagating ideas and scaling requires resilience in spades. For all my cheerfulness, almost-40yr old energy isn’t as sprightly as 30yr old energy. No wonder the phrase “work smarter, not harder” has been popularised: there is wisdom in acknowledging I need to operate differently without compromising on impact.
Annoyingly, there is no pleasant, idyllic and comfortable way to develop resilience. It’s usually birthed in the exact opposite circumstances of what I listed. I do try to prepare for resilience in the areas of known risk. It helps to some extent but for the most part, I find myself learning and growing the most when tested by live scenarios.
I have a long history with resilience. During my interview on Bush Radio (link below), I discussed what I learnt from my experience of being expelled from boarding school and the advice I have for young people struggling to recover from a setback. We must believe that our failures or mistakes don’t have the final say over our lives otherwise we will be trapped in the past. This perspective isn’t easy to hold in the heat of the moment and/or when you have limited experience. That’s why I am here to help.
Let’s keep doing the work to build up resilience from the situations that challenge us. It takes intention to grow because of a situation. It’s not enough to only go through it. You never know when you need that resilience for yourself or the people who rely on you. I’d also like to encourage you to freely give positive feedback, praise and encouragement to anybody you see doing a good job. So many people struggle with self-doubt or discouragement despite projecting confidence to the rest of the world. Your words could be a timely lifeline to someone in need of affirmation.
Click on the play button below to access my latest interview.
In case you missed it:
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