Steve Maraboli once said, “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, people get stronger and more resilient.” Honestly, he couldn’t have put it in better words. It becomes clearer and clearer each day, especially in light of the last few years like COVID and the fears of a third world war. The ability to pick up the broken pieces and soldier on the ability to move past difficult situations and keep on pushing forward is very necessary if a person seeks growth and progress. In this article, we will cover 15 WAYS TO BUILD RESILIENCE.
If you’ve been struggling with staying strong in difficult times, people should understand, difficult situations can have an immense effect on the human body and mind but you can move past these tough situations, and come out on top by building your resilience.
In this article, we will examine 15 ways in which you can build your resilience and outlast those seemingly tough situations. Ready to start and let’s get into it! Welcome to Alux. If you don’t feel like reading the article here’s the video version:
1
ALWAYS STAY POSITIVE
Constantly staying positive is a very important part of building resilience. In most of these difficult situations, it may not be easy to stay happy and hopeful, but you must make a conscious effort to at least try.
Develop a positive outlook toward yourself and your problems. Look forward to how the future would make the situation better instead of focusing all your energy on the current state of things. Staying in a negative or neutral state just sort of leaves you stuck, sad, and constantly worried. Staying positive helps you to be able to keep going and it reminds you that there are better days ahead.
2
STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS AND BUILD CONNECTIONS
It is important that you prioritize your relationships and even build new healthy connections to help you along the way. Relationships and meaningful connections provide an outlet for you to be able to communicate with other people about your problems and difficult situations.
A great friendship or relationship pushes you to want to keep trying or to want to give up. Sometimes we all just need someone to listen and then they realize that things aren’t as bad as a person thought they were. It also makes you understand that you’re not alone and that people are supporting you from the sidelines. Communication is very important in every situation as the popular saying goes, “A problem shared is a problem solved.”
3
SELF CARE
Maintaining a good state of physical, emotional, and mental health is a major step toward being resilient. If you are in a good place mentally and emotionally, you are more likely to push yourself through difficult situations. It is only a healthy person that can give their 100% to a cause.
Neglecting your physical health, your body, and your mind will do you no good in the long run. Eat properly, sleep at the appropriate time and for the appropriate number of hours, stay hydrated, and throw in a little bit of exercise.
Meditate when you can, read, write things down, and stay positive as healthy living and proper care of oneself can help reduce stress, fight depressive thoughts, and also keep anxiety at bay. You are more likely to become that resilient version of yourself If your body is strong and ready to fight.
4
AVOID COMPARISON
One thing that is easy to do is to compare yourself to others, and even though everyone does it, it’s not the right thing to do.
Comparing yourself to others would do more harm than good. There is nothing to gain from comparing yourself or my situation to others.
When you constantly make these social comparisons is that you make up more situations, without fully understanding the life of the other person. Unfortunately, this will lead to stagnation, and you’d end up heaping blame on yourself. Simply, comparisons are the opposite of resilience and stunt our growth. So, you need to shun them and focus on yourself.
5
BE GOAL-ORIENTED
You should know exactly what you want and ruthlessly go for it. You must have a goal towards which you’re working, and this goal will provide direction for your entire life. Clarity and some sense of direction are always important to building resilience.
If you have to, get a diary and write down your goals, set a timeline, draw a plan and write down actionable steps you can take towards achieving this goal. Go over it day after day, alter it where you notice things that can be better, and continue to work with it. It is very important to run with a vision and not just by mere feelings or thoughts.
When you put things in perspective, it helps you to attain goals, and build resilience to challenges that could come up along the way.
6
KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS
What are you good at? What do you excel in? And What are the things in which you have an advantage? What’s that one thing that makes you stand out from the crowd?
These answers are your strengths, and understanding them will help you build resilience in the right direction.
Rather than focusing on things that aren’t your greatest suits or dwelling on your perceived shortcomings, you should find out things that you’re good at and leverage on them. Focus on these strengths, build your goals around them, and you’ll see how quickly you break down barriers.
As soon as you identify what your strengths are, you’d have a clearer vision and improved understanding of yourself, which is a big step in building resilience.
7
ACCEPT CHANGE
If there’s one thing that’s constant about life, it is changing. Seasons change, people change, and nothing remains the same forever. As humans, people must learn to accept change, especially when they can do nothing to alter what has happened.
Dwelling on these circumstances you cannot change does nothing, but keep you in the past, filling you with regrets and what-ifs. On the flip side, accepting that you cannot change these situations open your eyes to situations that you can change. You can attain resilience if you’re able to focus on things you can influence and alter, rather than things that are completely out of your control.
8
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
This might sound cliché, especially since most of us hear this all the time from almost everyone who tries to give us advice but whether they like it or not, believing in ourselves is one of the greatest superpowers we have as humans. Believe in yourself and your abilities, and this will in turn build your confidence and self-esteem, and these, my friends, often promote resilience.
A very self-aware person recognizes their most skilful areas and things they’re very good at and this serves as a booster when they need to keep moving forward despite the odds. What you want to do is throw doubt out of the window, ignore all the what-ifs, and believe that you are all you need to get things done.
9
KEEP YOUR SIGHTS ON THE FUTURE
There’s nothing for you in the past; all those mistakes you might have made along the lines are unimportant. You can’t change it, so don’t bother with it. The only important thing is to keep your sights ahead, on the future. To do this, accept that the past is the past, and the future is what you make of it. If you think the future will hold nothing but hardship, then maybe it will.
However, if you believe that the future is filled with bright and beautiful days, then you’ll push and push until these days come. This push will build your resilience, and challenges will be nothing but tiny obstacles to you. Most importantly, focusing on the future helps us to remain positive even in difficult times.
10
SPEAK UP
You’ll never get it if you don’t ask for it. Barack Obama would never have made history if he kept his dreams to himself. Speak up; share your opinions, your thoughts, and your dreams with people around you. Express yourself at every opportunity; if you decide to keep mute, what would that do for you? I don’t see it doing any good, both in the short run and long run. It’s important to develop the ability to speak up.
Put your thoughts out there, ask questions, and make suggestions. You never know who might be listening to you. Most great stories begin with a person who was not scared to voice their opinions and speak up for what they believe in. Nobody is ever going to hear that great idea if it just sits quietly inside you.
11
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES
Everybody makes mistakes; it’s an important part of the natural state of things. You get some right and some well, you don’t do so well at them but don’t fret because that’s fine as it happens to every single one of us.
What do you do when you make these mistakes? Do you sit down and wallow in those errors or do you go back to your drawing table and learn from these mistakes? Here’s what we suggest you do: go back to your drawing table.
Every mistake should be seen as a learning opportunity, a chance to do something that makes you better. You now have a certain experience and you have come out with an important lesson. With that, you just turned a loss into a huge win. Learning from your mistakes and not just dwelling on them helps you face tough circumstances, while still staying strong, staying resilient.
12
PRIORITIZE YOUR MOTIVATION
What makes you want to soldier on? What motivates you? You need to be able to channel that into your day-to-day life.
Remember what it is that you want to keep going for, prioritize that motivation and run with it. Nothing drives a person better than the reason why they are doing something. Perhaps you want to make your parents proud because they did a lot for you as a child or you want to prove to yourself that you are capable of success.
Then remind yourself every day of your “Why’s,” and these why will push you to soldier on.
Do you want to build resilience? Then constantly find ways to keep yourself motivated. Hinge on that relationship with motivation and you’d find yourself driving towards your goals irrespective of the situation.
13
EMBRACE CHALLENGES
“Challenges, I’m not sure about them, but I’d rather run away.”
Does this sound like you? I understand why you would think of running; challenges can be daunting, and they can drain your physical and mental energy but try not to run away from challenges. They may seem to pose immediate problems, but the only way to tackle them is by actually embracing them, and seeing them as an opportunity to grow.
Challenges help you understand pain and difficulty. They help you discover more about yourself and how you can adapt and make things work. Embracing challenges also helps you test yourself and you’d be surprised to see how you thrive in situations you thought would knock you out. Self-discovery is an important step to building resilience, and these challenges provide a pathway to self-discovery.
14
LEARN TO BE DECISIVE
The journey to resilience hinges on our abilities to make concise and timely decisions. Indecision is a time-eater, and if you allow it, it would have a drastic effect on your career. When you set goals, you must always make timely decisions, as stalling will affect several other things but before you make these decisions, always weigh the pros and cons of this decision, and consider all the possibilities and likely outcomes.
Speak to people, maintain two-way communication, ask for help when necessary and make these decisions that need to be made. Always remember that no one will make these decisions for you, and even if they do, your indecision will catch up with you sooner or later.
15
BUILD COMMITMENT
Being committed simply means that you should learn to build commitment to a cause. Now, this cause can be anything, as long as it matters to you. Whether it’s your relationships, your job, or a project you’re working on, it’s important to maintain a level of commitment to these things, as they help build the bridges that keep you going when the going gets tough.
Simply put, your level of commitment to whatever cause you are invested in should be high. Remember that your commitment would in turn help to build your resilient nature, so you have the motivation to push through the hard times.
Conclusion:
There it is, 15 ways you can build your resilience to keep you going. Ever heard the saying, “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” Well, it’s still as true as ever.
Have you read this article up until this point? Thank you for sticking around. However, there is an extra tip for you.
