What is resilience?

Posted 4 years ago

When we think of somebody who is resilient, we tend to think of a person who has a natural ability to handle any obstacle that they might face. The type of person who is born with the ability to be able to constantly adapt in order to find success.

However, most resilient people don’t inherit this trait, it’s something that is learned. A skill that anyone can develop if they put in the time and effort. Think of it this way, strengthening your resilience is no different to strengthening your muscles – you need to work at it consistently and you will reap the rewards.

But if this is the case, what does resilience actually mean?

Resilience means being able to recover quickly from mental, emotional or physical obstacles. In our Online Resilience Training course, we illustrate resilience as an elastic band, as it springs back into shape after it’s stretched.

What makes a person resilient?

There are many examples of resilience, including becoming unwell and recovering quickly or being faced with a high-stress situation and finding a way to adapt and come out stronger and wiser.

A resilient person sees a setback or a defeat as not only a normal part of life but also an opportunity for growth. They choose to control their response to what is happening around them, instead of trying to control what is happening around them. A resilient person does not have to like what is going on in a given situation, but they can often find a silver lining, and choose to learn something from negative experiences.

It’s important to note that resilience looks different for different people, depending on their circumstances, their challenges, and their mental or physical health. For some, resilience means getting out of bed and facing the day, when they almost think they can’t; for others, it means balancing a hectic work schedule and busy family life; and resilience is also needed for things like training for marathons, those starting a business, and, in fact, anything that involves someone swimming upstream for a little while.

What is the importance of resilience at work?

Resilience is a highly valuable skill to have in all places of work as it means an employee is accepting of change and challenges that may come with an organisation that is dynamic and moving with the times.

Developing personal resilience will encourage an underperforming, overworked, or even underworked, employee to gain a fresh perspective of their situation, which is sometimes all that’s needed to make lasting positive changes.

It’s important to recognise that being resilient helps in positive situations too. For example, getting a promotion at work. While someone is being rewarded for good, hard work, they are also going to be juggling a greater workload, more responsibility, and most likely high-pressure situations, but with a resilient mindset, they can continue to thrive.

Online Resilience Training

We offer an Online Resilience Training course that has been designed to provide the user with tools needed to build resilience. As an outcome of completing the course, the user will learn what’s needed in order to better manage challenges and maintain good personal wellbeing in the face of adversity.

This training course comes as part of our Returning to Work Essentials bundle, due to the fact that resilience is absolutely essential upon returning to work. This is because employees will likely face a variety of challenges in the first few weeks back.

You can claim a no-obligation free trial to any of our courses today!