Choosing An Attitude of Resiliency

Do you have an attitude of resiliency? Do you have "bouncebackability?" These may be a couple of the most important questions you can ask yourself. Why? Because to truly be happy, successful, satisfied, etc. we all have to be able to bounce back from adversity. That's exactly what resilience will do for you!

One of Merriam-Webster's definitions for resilience is:

"An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change."

We've all faced difficult and challenging times in our lives. Looking back, how would you rate your "ability to recover from or adjust easily" to those difficulties? Whether you consider yourself to be very resilient or tend to find yourself lower on the scale, the good news is you can consciously improve your ability to be resilient.

I'd like to offer up 3 ways to improve your resiliency:

1. Utilize your "Power to Choose" how you will respond to obstacles or difficulties that come your way. By consciously considering your response, you effectively negate any power that situation has over you and will make it much easier to deal with and bounce back from. Mark Twain famously observed, "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." By choosing your response to situations, you are much more likely to determine the actuality of it transpiring and level of effort you will need to overcome whatever the situation is. Rarely are the challenges in our lives as dire as we initially believe them to be.
2. Take actions that push you outside of your comfort zone. Because an attitude of resiliency is also an ability, this ability can be improved. The most recent Scientific American Mind put it this way, "Virtually anyone can become more resilient through disciplined, consistent practice." You will find as you exercise your stress muscles, you'll be able to better deal with stressful situations.
3. Associate with, and study, people who have been able to bounce back from difficult challenges in their lives. They can offer up tremendous support, advice, and provide a great model to assist you as you develop your attitude of resiliency.

Resiliency is one of the seven attitudes I believe to be necessary to truly achieving all we were created to achieve. Check out the lives of people like Joseph, Job, David, and Paul from the Bible if you don't have anyone you can look to as an example of living a resilient life!

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him." Job 13:15 (NKJV)