Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of
adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress
— such as family and relationship problems,
serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors.
It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences.
Ironman training is often associated with series of long workouts, becoming masters of time management and sacrifices. I was always looking beyond that. Setting m eyes on the side effect of managing it all: a skill , a must have feature of character for Ironman – Resilience. I always bounce back fast. I recover well from physical aspects of training. But the most important part of the recovery for me is mental. An ability to bounce back from almost anything fast and come back swinging.The enso circle with Ironman symbol is imprinted on my arm as a tattoo – a symbol of my ongoing journeys. It’s an anchor – it helps taking my mind to that point of optimism no matter what I am dealing with. I always knew I can handle anything and bounce back from any experiences fast, the tattoo is a reminder of that
As I keep on these journeys I get to know I am not the only one interested in question of optimism. I’ve just started discovering a whole field of study of connection between optimism and success. Books, articles, people who think alike and exhibit the same optimistic resilience through their lives – started beaming on me all over.
1. The “Fearless Leadership” One of the books I’m keeping at my desk handy is the FEARLESS LEADERSHIP by Carey Lohrenz
At Chapeter 7 she lists the 7 steps for leading through adversity. I like the structured list of the steps:
- Step 1. Reject Victimhood
- Step 2 Embrace Change
- Step 3 Focus on What Matters
- Step 4 Find a Wingman
- Step 5 Know What You Can Control
- Step 6 Learn from Adversity
- Step 7 Take Action
I am not going to copy here the test for each of the steps, they are simple but well defined. But what I do like is the positive approach suggested: practical , easy to grasp as a schema of actions to be taken in case required.
2. Mindfulness and Positive Thinking Optimism article at http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org – a site developed to provide “science-based information on the life skills and habits needed to enhance well-being, build resilience against depression and anxiety, and pursue a meaningful life.”
- Imagine two students who receive the same poor grade on an exam. The first student thinks, “I’m such a failure! I always do poorly in this subject. I can’t do anything right!” The second student thinks, “This test was difficult! Oh well, it’s just one test in one class. I tend to do well in other subjects.”
I always managed to fit both approaches in my mind. The original short-term impact of a hard workout or an issue at work or in life does get me disoriented and lost! But then I get to find my focus back again – I reassess the situation as one of the minor flips and “plot twists”, re-fucus on what matters, re-evaluate inventory, take notes and take actions. People around might see only one side of it – the optimist side. But here I want to share about what goes on “behind the scenes”. The practical and actual mechanism of applied optimism in my life. And if it does help some readers of this blog – share it on!
3. “Broadcasting happiness” – Browsing through Barnes&Noble books searching for my next book to read I noticed the book having the title so similar to the title of this blog. My blog’s title is “Radiating life”. The book name is “Broadcasting happiness” . As I started going through the book pages I was nodding and laughing and “YES!”-ing to the author! I found another thinker alike! Another researcher of the positive psychology field , a founder of goodthinkinc.com targeting to broadcast the message on! My excitement of discovery of the whole crowd of people thinking alike in terms of optimism in life can be compared with Robinson Crousoe’s excitement when he met people for the first time at his island.
My excitement about getting to meet “the triathletes tribe”, that keeps practicing the “bouncing back” trick on daily basis through their training in swimming, biking running – is sort of the same nature.
Cause that’s what we do every day – we face the adversities, we rebound and hit back to the field with prevailing optimism and uncrushable power of resilience.
Keep going!