🪨Taking the easier route

Tip from Michele& the Removing Your Roadblocks series​

Resilience has been a big corporate buzzword for many years now. I often hear people talk about becoming resilient as an outcome of having dealt with a challenge. In my leadership training, I share the following definition of resilience from the APA Dictionary of Psychology and ask people to pick the most important word in the definition. Let’s see if you can spot it.

Resilience: The process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.

What word did you choose?

Did you choose “process”?

If so, you’re correct. You see, resilience is what happens in the face of challenge; it’s not an end result.

The process though isn’t always easy. As human beings, we run towards reward and away from threats. For many people, a challenge can be a form of a threat, and their initial instinct would be to try to resist or deny it in some way.

Resistance and resilience can’t exist in the same space. When we resist what is by focusing on the negative aspects, we make things harder for ourselves and those around us. It’s basically a drag on your energy. Don’t get me wrong: accepting what is doesn’t mean you have to like it or resign yourself to something that is unacceptable. But, by accepting it, you eliminate the drag, allowing all your energy to be focused on fully facing the challenge, so you can adapt and adjust to the situation in the most effective way.

So when you notice you’re actively resisting a situation, challenge, or setback, ask yourself: how much more effective would I be if I stopped resisting and made room for the process of being resilient to takeover?

🧡Michele

Questions or eager to take this concept further? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me, reply here or email info@monumentalme.com.