It is a well-known fact that people who are more intelligent and creative tend to be less resilient. This is because they often get frustrated much quicker than other people, and this can lead to major setbacks in life. It’s not enough just to have high intelligence or creativity; you also need resilience as an important factor in order for your goals to become reality. In this article and podcast, Nelly Shein and Nathaniel Schooler discuss how you can build up your resilience so that it becomes easier for you to achieve any goal you set out for yourself.
When setting goals, it’s not always about being the best or achieving the biggest and most impressive milestones.
When setting goals, it’s not always about being the best or achieving the biggest and most impressive milestones. Often, what’s more important is how you respond when things don’t go according to plan. In other words, resilience matters. Without it, you’ll crumble under pressure and give up when things get tough. But with resilience, you’re able to pick yourself up after a failure and keep moving forward until you reach your goal. So if you want to achieve your goals, you need to cultivate resilience in yourself.
In life, there will always be obstacles and challenges both in your personal life and in business. We have a saying: “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going” is a 1985 song co-written and originally recorded by English singer Billy Ocean in 1985.
Even when you have a plan, you will face unexpected roadblocks, the good news is that with resilience you will be able to keep calm under the pressure of life. Just remember that you can do it and don’t give up.
Believe it or not, building your personal brand is also really important in building self-esteem. You can find out more here.
Staying Focused
So, you are carrying too much weight. The trousers and blouse are too tight around your belly, the waist that you used to have is hardly there anymore, instead, it is a straight line from the side of your chest down to your hip. I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t know what to do to change that – eat less and move more. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Yet, losing weight and keeping it off, is one of the most difficult goals to achieve. At least 80 percent of those who successfully lost at least 10% of their body weight, will gradually regain it and even more weight than before starting the diet. Yet the world is swamped with books and clubs about diets and losing weight. It is an industry that is valued at 200 billion dollars. (Grand View Research). My GP once told me that the person who could create the formula for long-lasting weight loss would be not only a millionaire, but a billionaire. I believe him.
This chapter is not about what diet to choose, but how to develop your resilience, to stay on the new road. So, what is it about weight loss that makes it so hard and challenging to succeed? If it would only be about eating the right protein drink and going to the best gym, most people would have succeeded a long time ago, instead, more and more people are becoming fat. 39% of adults in the world are overweight. One-in-five children and adolescents, globally, are overweight. (WHO).
The above figures would look equally depressing if we were looking at alcohol, tobacco, or gambling to mention a few areas where people are struggling. How do we build resilience? It is more than willpower, that’s for sure. Let’s move over to my gardens, both in Sydney and Stockholm. What makes them grow? What makes the plant sustain rain, hail, snow, and tough sunshine? First of all, they need perfect soil, soil with the right pH-value, correct fertilisers, not too much pesticide. The correct quantity of water. Protection against snow. Shade from the sun. The list goes on and on.
Let’s convert this to a human being, then we are talking about trust, love, caring, inspiration, comfort, assistance, and mentors. As you can see it takes a bit more than maybe “just” determination. All of these values need to be there to sustain you through the journey towards resilience. Like my gardens demand the best condition as per above, so do human beings. You cannot skip love and say that it doesn’t matter that you don’t have that in your life.
It starts off with you loving you, at least. Now you might say “wow, I didn’t think it would be this complicated, I thought I could just read this book. Well, that is the start of it. The journey towards building resilience comes in different steps. You can almost compare it to bringing up a child. There are several things that need to happen before she or he is ready to leave the nest. It is the same with you and building resilience. I guess you have built Lego. Many small pieces were put together. Now when you know that there is a bit involved in this process, you are ready to embark on this road. You have a choice to follow this road or any other of course. Whatever you decide to follow or do, you will need to stay focused to sustain resilience. Staying focused starts with you deciding what you want to achieve. It can be losing weight, being a better boss, paying off your debts, or finding love. It doesn’t matter what you decide, you will need resilience to get there.
Take Action
Think about one area you would like to change?
What do you already have to achieve that quality?