“Life does not get easier or more forgiving. We get stronger and more resilient,” says the famous author Steve Maraboli. Resilience refers to how well you can haggle with and bounce back from life’s challenges. Essentially, it can mean the difference between losing your cool and handling pressure.
Resilient individuals have the tendency to retain a more positive outlook and cope more effectively with stress. Although some studies have shown that there are some who are naturally resilient, this behavior isn’t limited to that and can also be learned.
This ability to move forward is very critical if you are seeking growth and progress. If you are having a hard time staying strong in challenging times, these situations can have an immense effect on the human body and mind. But once you move past these situations, you will be able to come out on top by building your resilience.
In this article, we are going to dive deeper into how you can build your resilience and outlive those ostensibly difficult situations. Let’s get into it!
1. Always Stay Positive
Remaining positive no matter what the situation is an important part of building resilience. Although some circumstances may not be easy to remain hopeful and happy, at least put up some conscious effort to try. Negative feelings will always be valid, but you need to remember not to wallow in them.
Understand the destructive thoughts you have in your head and figure out ways how to move them toward positivity. Develop a positive outlook towards yourself and the problems that you have.
2. Build Connections and Strengthen Relationships
Prioritizing your relationships and connections will be a good idea if you want to build resilience. These relationships provide an avenue for you to be able to communicate with other people about the difficult situations you have been facing.
The relationships you forge could determine how you would react to dreading circumstances. It could either make you want to give up or make you keep on trying. The voice of these people could serve as a navigation for you to realize that things aren’t as bad as you thought they were.
Connections that you establish would also cushion you from the loneliness of failing. You will not feel like you are not alone since there are people who support you from the sidelines, no matter how tough things get. Just like what the popular saying goes, “A problem shared is a problem solved.”
3. Prioritize Your Motivation
Channel your motivation into your everyday life. Bear in mind all things that you want to keep going for and prioritize them as your inspiration. Find the “why” in your goals. Maybe you desire to make your parents proud because they have done a lot for you as a child, or perhaps you just want to prove to yourself that you are capable of success.
Every day, remind yourself of the reason why you are pushing through the hardships because these why will push you to soldier on.
4. Self-Care
Self-care is a major step in becoming resilient. This is because if you are mentally and emotionally stable, you are more likely to push yourself through various challenging situations. Remember, those healthy individuals can give their 100% to the cause.
Hence, neglecting your body, mind, and entire physical health will do you no good in the long run. Eat healthy food, and sleep at the appropriate time and for the appropriate number of hours. Remember to stay hydrated and throw in a little bit of exercise. Take some time to meditate, read, and journal things down.
Stress can be reduced when you properly take care of yourself. It can also help you fight depressive episodes while keeping anxiety at bay. When your body and mind are ready to fight, that’s when you become the resilient version of yourself.
5. Avoid Comparison
We all fall into the comparison trap, which in turn, does us more harm than good. Whenever you feel like comparing yourself to other people, ask yourself this question – “What would I gain by comparing myself or my situation to others?”
When you make social comparisons, you make a scene without fully understanding the life of the other person. This, unfortunately, leads to stagnation, which makes you end up keeping the blame on yourself for not measuring up.
6. Be Goal Oriented
Identify the things you badly want to do and then ruthlessly go after them. The goal you’re working towards will give you direction for your entire life. Having a sense of direction and clarity is always important to establishing resilience.
Write down your goals on a short piece of paper and set a timeline for when you want to achieve them. Formulate actionable steps towards achieving these goals and then go over these plans over and over again. When you notice things and goals that could be improved, alter them and continue to chip away at them.
Soldiers who enter a war without gears and guns end up losing. The same goes for ordinary people. When you journey in life, it’s important to run carrying a vision, not just mere emotions and sentiments. Putting things into perspective will allow you to acquire your goals and create resilience to challenges that could come about along the way.
7. Recognize Your Strengths
Identify the things that you are good at, the things you excel in, and the things where you have an advantage. These things are what will make you stand out from the crowd, so understanding them will permit you to build soundness in the right direction.
Instead of focusing on aspects where you aren’t the greatest and rather than hanging your hat on shortcomings, find the things that you are good at and leverage them to the fullest. Establish your goals around them, and you will see how fast you crack down barriers.
8. Welcome Change
If you would ask people around you if there’s something that’s constant in life, they would probably answer— change. Everything changes, may it be people, weather, or seasons. Nothing remains the same forever.
We must learn how to accept change, especially when there’s nothing we can do to alter what has already happened. Dwelling on affairs you have no power over keeps you in the past that would only fill you with regrets and what-ifs.
When you learn to welcome change and accept everything that’s happened opens up your eyes to situations that you can actually change. Set your focus on things you can influence instead of things that you can never have control over.
9. Keep Your Sights On The Future
There’s nothing in the past but frozen memories, so the most important thing you must focus on is keeping your sights ahead on the future. If you think that the future has nothing to offer you but misfortunes, then maybe it will since it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, if you look at the future filled with bright and beautiful days, then you will strive harder and harder every time you fall down until that day comes. The challenges you will face with build your resilience until bigger obstacles become tiny snags to you.
