What Resilience Means to Me
I often hear the term Resilience used in how we compare one person/group with another, yet for me, I use it to compare how I am with something right now compared to what I used to be like. There are some things which I feel less determined about, less focussed, less tenacious, less motivated, but in the main, the desire to keep going with things I find hard is greater as I get older.
‘Running long distances without needing as much resilience’
Of the many meanings of Resilience, I like “the ability to recover one’s shape; the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences.”
As a coach I regularly hear leaders finding strategies to bring their resilience to the surface to face daily challenges. Their need to reshape, bounce back and go again. This is often not a choice for them – it’s leadership. It is what is expected from those they lead. But often these expectations do not allow room for unforeseen changes.
Last year I broke my foot for the second time in 7 years. One of my greatest pleasures is to go running 3 or 4 times a week so aside from the obvious distress of a broken bone, my inability to run was a huge blow. The temptation then is to try to ‘accelerate’ one’s recovery - to assume I could run before the bone was fully healed. This challenge was heightened as I had signed up for a half-marathon in 3 months time. Resilience though is ‘successfully adapting to difficult experiences’ and rushing to adapt would not bring success here. It’s not always what is best right here and now, but what is best for the long-term. And so I choose the option of full recovery before lacing up my running shoes and feel so much better for doing so. I then planned a very focussed, determined and tenacious schedule to get ready for the race which I successfully completed without injury. Slower than previous runs but with an optimism of more in the future.
This was my version of Resilience.
‘Finishing the Half-Marathon’
I wonder if leaders could use this long-term thinking when they are faced with unexpected obstacles to their daily challenges – deciding which ones are okay not to rush into, which ones need a long-term plan to reach a better outcome and which ones need Resilience to re-shape, bounce back and go again. We don’t have to believe good leadership Resilience is always demonstrated right then and there.
You have permission to stop running!
