How you respond in a crisis says more than you think.
You find out what you’re made of. And sometimes, it’s not what you expected.
Life throws curveballs. You know the ones I mean. The kind that knocks the wind out of you.
You can’t always stop them. But you can choose how you respond. That’s where resilience comes in.
Not just putting on a brave face, but having the mindset to steady yourself even when it feels like everything’s shifting under your feet.
Think back to the pandemic. No two people went through it the same way. But if you’re anything like most people I speak to,
There was probably one question that came up at some point:
How resilient am I… really?
A fixed mindset versus a growth mindset
Some people are just more resilient than others, but a resilient mindset is something that can be learned and developed.
Psychologist Carol Dweck studied the attitude that students had to failure. She noted that while some students easily bounced back from a setback, others would fall apart. What explained this, she said, was differences in mindset, and she coined the idea of a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset.
According to her theory, a person with a fixed mindset does not really believe that they are capable of growth, improvement, and change, and person with a growth mindset views setbacks as a learning experience that will help them grow.
Becoming resilient is the same sort of idea. If you haven’t dealt well with a disappointment or negative event in the past, you probably think that you’re always going to be crushed when undesirable things happen in life, but this isn’t the case.
You just need to accept that resilience is something you need to work on, then you can get on with the business of developing a resilience mindset.
3 steps to developing a resilience mindset
- Remember what you’ve already been through and survived!
Whenever you find yourself doubting your resilience, remember what you’ve been through in your life. However terrible it was, you’re still standing! This can really help when you’re facing tough situations. You’re probably more resilient than you think or give yourself credit for.
- Focus on what you can control
When things go wrong, do you immediately blame others or external circumstances? Do you believe that situations are rarely within your control? Changing your focus to what you can control can make a huge difference to your resilience. Getting upset and worried about things you can’t control is unhelpful and a waste of precious time and energy.
- Develop helpful coping strategies to build resilience
Something seems to happen to our brains when we’re in a crisis. Anxiety, stress, and sometimes blind panic can make us completely lose clarity of thought and lose sight of how things really are. Often the things that help us deal with stress like exercise, spending time doing things we enjoy, and getting enough sleep can fall by the wayside.
So make sure you put some strategies in place that you can fall back on when the going gets tough, whether it’s going for a walk in nature, calling a friend, or reading a book by one of your favourite authors, it’s an essential step to developing a resilience mindset.
