Hi!
Resilience is the ability to navigate change towards a positive goal.
That is the chorus of every song I sing, the answer to just about every difficult question I face. Indeed, it is the core of my professional and personal mission.
Everywhere I go, from lecture spaces to consulting calls to exam rooms to grocery store lines, people ask me about how to get more resilience. And what they’re asking, really, is “I understand life is full of change, but can’t we make it easier somehow?” Yes! Yes we each can.
Building our resilience – our ability to navigate all that change – doesn’t require us to control the outcome. We don’t have to be lucky or fortunate or even, in the words of Garrison Keillor, “good looking and above average.”
We just need to try.
Resilience is built in the trying. Resilience doesn’t require attaining your goal. It grows every time you work towards your goal. The skills you utilize and strengthen by deciding:
“In the face of this change, what is my goal?”
“What steps will I take to try to achieve that goal?”
and then working on those steps create resilience in this situation and make all the future changes easier. No matter the outcome, you will increase “resilience muscle.”
Resilience is built in the working, not the winning.
What are you working on right now that can make you stronger today and in the future? Comment and tell me?
All my best,
Dr. G
