Monday Morning

Motivation    4/4/2011

THE POSITIVE PLACE. SALES MOTIVATION AND PERSONAL GROWTH

Resilience

I've written quite a bit about tenacity, but not that much about resilience.

Different from, but related to tenacity, resilience is the ability of a material or a person to bounce back after being stressed.

In terms of the physical items around us, some compounds are resilient: rubber, for example, will bounce back and assume its original shape. Other items are not resilient: glass, for example, shatters easily and won’t take pressure the way rubber will.

In people, we all know people who, when subjected to stress of some kind (sickness, financial failure, heartbreak, disappointment, for example), seem to bounce back, no matter what the stress involved, or how deep it may be. Cancer? They seem to take it in stride. Financial difficulties? They find a way to deal with them, and even rise above their troubles.

We also know those who fold at the simplest of stressful times -- the first little setback, and they're left collapsed on the floor.

Perhaps some of this is the way a person grows up, some may be genetic, and some may be from experience or learning, but I firmly believe that each and every one of us can learn to develop more resilience in our lives.

It seems to me that developing resilience depends on several factors: 1: Not taking yourself so seriously; 2: Gaining a wider view of your challenges and opportunities; 3: Applying a positive view of the world to the inevitable stresses and downturns; 4: Taking the physical steps (more sleep, exercise, relaxation) to address physical responses to stress; 5: Counting your blessings as an aid to help understand that little downturns aren't as big as you think.

The truth is that all of us, no matter how positive our outlook, how fit our bodies, or how complete our resume, are going to have little downturns in life. All of us are going to come up against the occasional challenge. None of us is immune, and even the “golden children” among us are going to have stresses in life. The key is to keep going, keep believing, and take each stress and challenge in stride, committing to stick to it until it sticks to you.

The person who can greet each day with hope and a positive belief, no matter how gloomy the previous day might have been, is a person who will win in life's challenges.

It's all about bouncing back and bouncing higher than before.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.