Building Personal Resilience

Difficult times require an increased level of personal resilience - the ability to respond to, and capacity to recover quickly from, difficult times, challenges and adversity. A resilient person is not only able to handle difficulties effectively at the time, they also have the ability to ‘bounce back’ quickly and effectively after the event.

So how do people remain calm and cope under pressure? Whether it’s one big blow, a series of knockbacks, adapting to a different way of working or a period of relentless workloads and impossible deadlines, the following tips will help you increase your resilience levels and ‘roll with the punches’ to reduce stress and increase success:

Confidence

We’re not all comfortable talking about our strengths but understanding our natural strengths and our capacity to cope creates a certainty that, whatever challenges we encounter, we can cope. Help build levels of confidence by:

• Envisaging future challenges and thinking about how you would deal with them Visualising and planning for success and working continually on developing your self- awareness

• Working on becoming more optimistic and positive in your thinking

• Being comfortable with yourself – simply being you

• Celebrating successes and really listening to praise when it is offered. This will help to maintain both self-esteem and self-confidence

Support

During this challenging period, we'll be reliant on technology more than ever, but it's just as important to keep reaching out.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and support

• Develop a clear understanding of who is in your support network – and who you can rely on for good advice

• Actively build new relationships in areas you feel you need support or where a different perspective would be useful

• Use the support to help you move forward – not just to let off steam

Adaptability

Being adaptable is important when coping with ambiguity, dealing with uncertainty and change. It allows us to adjust to different situations and think through consequences in a logical way, rather than subjecting ourselves to the negative impact of ‘fight or flight’ which occurs when change is perceived as a threat rather than an opportunity. Increase your levels of adaptability by:

• Treating every experience as a learning opportunity – never stop learning Revisiting past adverse experiences to discover useful lessons to help in the future Keeping things in perspective!

• Embracing discomfort as part of the change process

• Avoiding thinking traps – blame, erroneous assumptions and tunnel vision are all unhelpful

• Being open, flexible and responsive to people and situations

Purposefulness

At the moment, it may feel that we have limited purpose! Creating a focus is vital for resilience - it helps to put things into perspective when difficulties arise. Day to day, try to find a sense of purpose - however small - and think about your goals and objectives. Work on:

• Spending time considering your goals and priorities for life

• Reminding yourself of the core purpose of your actions when faced with frustrations or a setback

• Refocusing on your end goal if you meet a block

• Being more decisive and, if you get it wrong, know when to cut your losses

• Keeping healthy! Physical health and mental health are closely linked – eat well, get plenty of sleep and exercise.

• Be sure to take time out to re-energise and relax!