This week’s focus:
Getting up one more time!
Business, and life, has become so much faster over the last couple of decades – or is that weeks! No surprise, then, if we think about it, that resilience has become so much more important these days for us as leaders and, indeed, people.
The easy answer is that all we have to do is get up one more time than we fall down! However, that begs the question: “how?”
Perhaps any or some or all of these four questions may prove useful:
- What are the brutal facts? Too often when things are tough we are denial about the actual facts. We keep looking at things from our subjective perspectives when we should be looking at what opportunity to learn has presented itself through the challenge.
- How can I have a resilient mindset? We need to be optimistic, but not overly optimistic. Rather our mindset should be one of: “I will prevail. I am in a difficult spot. But I will prevail!”
- What is the meaning in what has happened? People who get up that one more time, tend to design interpretations of their suffering to create some sort of meaning for themselves and others.
- How can I make do in this situation? Often the brutal fact is that we don’t have sufficient or relevant resources to improvise a best solution to a problem, so what can we make do with? For a start, we have a wonderfully powerful resource: the ability to choose, no matter how deep the pit, to have the necessary courage and to prevail.
Of course, there are other questions you can ask yourself but remember the bottom line is that you have to get again this time; you have to prevail! So, find the way to do it! And the courage!
Monday Morning Perspective: “When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.”
-A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
