If you’re looking for ways to boost resilience for tackling the challenges of the upcoming New Year — this is the guide for you!
We’ve finally reached the end of a year that seemed to fly by way too fast and ask too much of us all in the areas of adapting to changes, overcoming challenges, and developing coping strategies for managing stress.
As we look toward the New Year, many of us are reflecting on a year that seemed to challenge us in new and unexpected ways while looking forward to the unknown future as writers, marketers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs.
Learn how developing resilience strategies to help you handle the everyday stresses of life in the guide to seven powerful resilience strategies below.
"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising – every time we fall."
What is Resilience?
Resilience is the innate ability to bounce back from challenges, setbacks, and tough times. Developing stronger resilience means finding effective ways to keep moving forward towards your goals – despite life’s seemingly unending challenges.
Why It’s Important to Develop Stronger Resilience
Having effective coping strategies in place helps us weather life’s unpredictable (yet inevitable) storms with greater ease. Many of us learn the concept of creating coping mechanisms and dealing with challenges after we have already experienced a negative event or trauma.
Imagine what your life could look like if you learned resilience strategies to help you navigate your way through even the most difficult life challenges before an event even happens?
Use adaptable coping strategies to increase your resilience during times of high stress and unexpected circumstances which can include any of the following:
- Dealing with the loss of a loved one.
- Experiencing natural disasters or unexpected emergencies.
- Facing rejection in your love life or career.
- Losing a job or facing financial instability.
- Recovering from a serious illness or injury.
- Relocating to a new city or state.
- Starting a new business or career.
The incidents above represents just a few of life’s challenges that can affect our need to become more resilient. Now, let’s look at why learning how to use coping mechanisms and resilience strategies to weather life’s storms can help improve our overall sense of well-being.
Effective Resilience Strategies Help Us Manage Life’s Unpredictable Challenges
Our world is filled with unpredictable challenges and headaches that seem to have no end. The only constant is change. Being able to understand that every day offers a new challenge that we can overcome and embracing those challenges (instead of shrinking back from them) is the way through.
Building Resilience Makes it Easier to Handle Rejection or Criticism
Many of us struggle with the concepts of rejection or criticism regardless of age, position, or status. This comes as no surprise despite our vast education in elementary school, high school, and college which likely did not instill the concepts of resilience and bouncing back from hurtful rejection or painful criticisms.
The best way to deal with rejection or criticisms is to face them head on. Consider the source of the criticism or rejection before automatically putting your head down and taking it into yourself as facts.
Ask Yourself The Following Questions When Faced with Criticism or Rejection:
Is the criticism coming from a trusted respected source or a scheming enemy who is well-known for trying to damage the confidence of their peers?
Once you have determined if you even want to examine the rejection or criticism in-depth ask yourself, is it true?
Examining our internal dialogue, goals, intent, and performance can tell us a lot about whether the criticism or rejection that we have received is warranted. If the information has no merit and doesn’t apply to you talk to a therapist or a trusted family member to get another perspective on the situation.
If the criticism or rejection is valid (based on an assessment our behavior or performance), one of the best things you can do is to reframe it as a learning opportunity understanding that we are human and sometimes we simply miss the mark.
There is no need to harp on a situation or beat yourself up as an evolving adult. Remember when you were young and tried walking or riding a bike for the first time?
Those tasks seemed impossible when trying them for the first time, but you never gave up. The same principles of consistency, picking yourself up, and trying again still apply in adulthood.
You can get help sorting out your thoughts from a licensed mental health professional, counselor, or trusted advisor to begin making small improvements in your life. Consistently reminding yourself that you have what it takes to perservere through life’s challenges will begin to show up in your everyday reality as you work diligently to achieve your long term goals of developing strength and resilience.
Look for ways that you can improve your behavior or performance in similarly tough situations going forward.
Boosting Resilience Helps Writers, Creators, and Business Owners Overcome Creative Blocks
If you find yourself stuck in a creative rut or spinning your wheels on your upcoming projects, you are not alone. Many people experience stagnation, writers block, or the sense of having hit a brick wall when they become overwhelmed, overstimulated, or simply burned out from the constant monotony of facing endless adversity.
Overcoming creative blocks can be as simple as changing your surroundings, environment, or social circle to get a clearer view, a new perspective, and a new jumping off point.
Mental Toughness is a Prerequisite for Building Long Term Success
Anyone setting out to build the long term success that comes along with achieving your goals or running a small business probably already knows that there are rocky roads ahead. However, you can’t always turn around and foster a new direction when your goals and success are on the other side of challenges.
Finding and using the right tools for any given situation is the best way to develop stronger resilience and to consistently overcome adversity. Look at each new challenge as an opportunity to hone your existing skills and learn new skills.
Resilience Makes Us More Effective at Managing Everyday Stress and Burnout
Professional writers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and gig workers must especially develop their sense of resilience to overcome the everyday challenges that come along with being independent workers and top decision makers in your field.
Having effective strategies in place for managing stress and burnout when they arise is one of the best ways to overcome tough challenges that can leave you feeling hopeless or defeated.
Mental Adaptability Helps Us Thrive Through Change
Even the most challenging setback can be seen as an opportunity when you’re looking at life through the powerful lens of resilience. Every event (both positive and negative), teaches us something about life, ourselves, our friends, family, neighbors, and the world around us.
In most cases, the events we initially perceive as negative are actually powerful redirections – disguised as temporary hard times. For example, not getting the job or relationship that you thought you wanted could be saving you from a lifetime of burnout, regret, and overwork.
We have to learn to reframe our negative experiences to keep ourselves from falling into the depths of lower vibrations that can lead to deep depression, anxiety, and other mental health related challenges.
7 Powerful Strategies for Boosting Resilience in the New Year
Now that you have a clear perspective on what resilience is and why it is crucial to develop stronger resilience, lets delve into seven powerful strategies for boosting resilience in the upcoming year.
#1. – Reflect on Past Challenges and Successes
We all have setbacks and unexpected life challenges that can leave us reeling as an after effect. The new year is the perfect time to strengthen resilience and embrace new opportunities. Reflect on past challenges that you have overcome as predictors of future successes.
Having keen self-awareness is one of the key components of building resilience. Self-monitoring and making active changes as needed are top tier ways to become more resilient for weather life’s inevitable storms.
Keeping a journal of your activities is a great way to look back at your life and reflect how far you’ve come. Give yourself credit for each small victory as you march on towards achieving your larger goals. Every step counts!
#2. – Set Realistic and Intentional Goals
Many of us have big dreams and goals that we would like to achieve at different intervals in our lives. Setting intentional and realistic goals is one way to strengthen your resilence while building mental clarity.
Choose smaller realistic goals when you have large goals. Take small steps toward your large goal each day by breaking them down into bite-sized tasks that can be completed at steady intervals.
“If you write one page every day, in 365 days – you’ll have a book.”
Experts say that you should create SMART goals to ensure a greater chance of success.
What Are SMART Goals?
–Specific
–Measurable
–Achievable
-Relevant
–Time-Sensitive
_________________
Goals
Learn How to Write Smart Goals from the Work-Life Balance Experts at Atlassian.
#3. – Prioritize Self-Care to Recharge Naturally
Fighting off the negative effects of everyday stresses related to career, home, and family can feel like a gargantuan task when we don’t prioritize self-care as an important factor in our lives.
Engaging in activities that make you feel recharged should be part of your daily, weekly, and monthly regimine. Most of us cannot present our best selves to our families, coworkers, loved ones, and neighbors when we constantly feel like we are running on empty.
#4. – Cultivate a Strong Support Network
Our close relationships have a significant impact on how we view ourselves and our world. It is crucial to have a supportive network who can provide invaluable best practices, tips, and life advice for the challenges you may be facing.
Network with like minded professionals, community members, and family members to gain insight, clarity, and advice as a key component of developing stronger resilience and coping skills.
#5. – Learn to Embrace Flexibility and Adaptability in Everyday Life
Looking back, you probably have experienced more than one instance of not getting something you wanted in your life. This is true for most of us. Gaining a new perspective on past challenges and recognizing how overcoming those challenges have moved you forward is an excellent way to cultivate resilience.
Instead of looking at the losses associated with that lost job, career, financial stability or sense of self, try a new approach. Look at the positives that came to be as a result of that situation.
#6. – Learn Healthy Coping Strategies for Effectively Managing Stress
Living under high levels of stress seems to be the new normal for many of us today. Learning how to cope with stress and to remain calm under even the most extreme pressure is a resilience technique that can help you quickly bounce back from even the worst life or business-related experiences.
- Try deep breathing exercises to help regulate your nervous system when you suddenly feel like you’re under attack.
- Staying calm under pressure really is a super power and it is a resilience skill that is often needed in today’s fast moving society where rules, manners, and regulations all seem to be out the window.
- Incorporate small breaks into your daily schedule to recenter yourself, calm your nervous system, and set a plan of action for the rest of your day.
- Taking even five minutes to focus on recentering can make a noticeable difference in how you feel throughout the rest of your day.
Take advantage of online mental health services and bite-sized therapy sessions offered by top online mental health service providers. Learning new coping skills and techniques from licensed and certified professionals can go a long way toward helping you develop stronger resilience skills when you need them the most.
#7. – Celebrate Progress, Not Perfection
I once read a quote that said “Done is better than perfect.” At the time I wasn’t sure if I agreed with the quote because I didn’t quite understand it and hadn’t taken the time to apply it to my life.
Once I began to practice the concept of “doing” in my writing, home, family, and business life, I began to see the value of completion vs. perfection. This concept directly applies to my life as a writer where I have learned to look at situations in my life as a first draft.
“You cannot edit a Blank Page.”
None of us is perfect. The good news is you can always improve on what you have already created whether that be a piece of writing, relationship, or communication skills.
You just have to be willing to put forth the effort on your own behalf. Once you become your own advocate and work to develop your resilience skills on the pathway to being a better you it becomes easier to see that we are indeed the architects of our own lives and we can overcome almost any challenge with the right coping skills in place.
Be as kind to yourself as you would be to others when facing life’s challenges or sudden setbacks.
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