In my previous article, I shared the story of how I bounced back after my experience with a dissatisfying career.
In this post, I’ve summarized 3 things you need to do in order to become more resilient.
Before, I share them, let me show you 3 reasons you should develop your resilience skills.
- RESILIENCE WILL HELP YOU FIND TRUE MEANING IN LIFE.
When you go through a challenge and not let it overshadow you, it matures you and changes your understanding and perspective to life.
You will come to understand what’s truly important in life.
Sometimes through the painful experience you’ve overcome you’re better able to appreciate what others in similar situation are going through and you’ll realize that God took you through that path so you can start living more meaningfully by helping others journeying through a similar path.
- RESILIENCE WILL ANNOUNCE YOU
If there is one thing that has the ability to announce you to the world, it is the pain you’ve been through.
This is because your pain has the capacity to reveal your hidden potentials.
You may never know what you are capable of doing or accomplishing until you go through an experience, bounce back and wonder how you managed to survive.
You have your God-given gifts and natural abilities, but in most cases these gifts are hidden and when you’re resilient enough to survive difficulties, you’ll discover these gifts and abilities.
Your gifts include the experience you acquire from your pain, including the passion you developed from that experience.
These gifts and abilities are your seeds of greatness.
They are what make you unique.
They distinguish you from others.
They enrich, as well as make you relevant and sought after. if only you’re able to become resilient.
- RESILIENCE WILL SHARPEN YOUR MIND AND TURN YOU INTO A CREATOR
When you experience a setback and overcome, it sharpens your mind and your senses.
You will become aware of the more important things in life and you will focus your mental energy and thoughts on how to accomplish them.
This process awakens your mind to think creativity and problem solving.
This way, you’re able to think out ideas and bring out solutions to human problems.
Most inventions and innovations we presently enjoy, are a result of people who purposefully went through pain, found the meaning in their pain through resilience and responded to suffering in a creative manner.
According to Kahlil Gibran “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”.
HERE ARE 3 THINGS YOU SHOULD DO TO IMPROVE YOUR RESILIENCE SKILLS.
- PRACTICE SELF AWARENESS
I realized that, to develop the persistence, grit and toughness required to birth something as enduring as my life’s vision, I needed to have a clear perception of WHO I AM.
So, I became intentional about my journey of self discovery and found what my gifts, strengths, weaknesses, natural abilities and passion were
I also gave myself a strong reason to keep pushing for my dreams and not give up in the face of extreme difficulties.
By this, I mean that you should find out what your PURPOSE is.
Your purpose is the reason you’re willing to go the extra mile and not give up in the face of a set-back of extreme nature like mine.
It’s called your WHY.
It’s the reason you are willing to gracefully bear pain until your big picture becomes reality.
You have a sense of purpose when you become more selfless and embrace a cause that’s bigger than you.
In my case, I found the reason why I had to get up from bed every morning even when I didn’t have things figured out yet.
I found purpose in “inspiring people to become the greatest possible version of themselves.”
You have to have a compelling reason for showing up, taking action and making sacrifices to reach your goal.
A strong sense of purpose will shape your mindset and attitude towards the unpleasant circumstances you encounter during the process.
- WORK ON YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE
To survive and thrive, I knew I had to become a very confident person.
Challenges, especially those of extreme nature, when overcome, can make your self confidence to nose dive.
This requires a high level of intentionality.
So, having become more self aware, and armed with a strong purpose, you should continually remind yourself of your past successes and achievements no matter how little.
I did this especially whenever self doubt starts to surface.
Shift your focus away from what everyone else is doing and build from your CORE.
Ensure that, you’re as authentic as possible.
To bolster your confidence you need to work on my problem-solving skills.
Now, if you want to become or remain relevant, you need to develop a capacity to solve problems.
The fact that you can solve problems will naturally help your confidence level to increase.
Being a problem solver will make you prepared and confident enough to face the next challenge.
In my case, I acquired digital skills, attended trainings, submitted to coaching and embraced mentorship.
I became a life-long learner and the fact that I know how knowledgeable and prepared I am is a boost to my self confidence.
- PRACTICE GOAL SETTING
To build resilience for the journey ahead, you need to practice goal setting.
One thing about goal setting is the fact that it can serve as a form of template for enduring difficult situations.
Learn to set goals as well as determine why those goals are important.
Chunk them down into actionable steps, with timelines for achievement.
Goal setting will help you build resilience because it will shift your attention from the difficult situation you face, to taking definite steps and actions towards the objective you desire to achieve at each point in time.
I remember clearly the day I made a declaration that at a particular age, I would have achieved some specific goal.
That declaration put me in check and became a constant reminder to keep giving it my all.
As I broke down my goal into steps, it became easier to take action and steps daily, monthly and yearly and though I didn’t achieve that particular goal at the exact time I desired, I saw that I came 85% close to achieving it.
So I was motivated to keep going and it took just a little more time and I had it accomplished.
In conclusion, as a career woman who’s desirous of creating a significant life that makes you useful and relevant for a long time, resilience is a skill you need.
Nikky
