The New Year is here and underway. At this time, many make resolutions, decisions, and changes in their life for the better. You may ask yourself why only a tiny percentage succeed through the year. Only 46 percent keep resolutions for six months, and 8 percent keep them all year. That 8% might seem small, but people who choose to make a New Year's resolution are ten times as likely to keep them over those who pursue improvement in another way. What is it that they possess that the majority don't? I know the answer; it's resilience.
What Is Resilience?
Resilience refers to people's ability to bounce back from adverse experiences and learn from them. Underneath those behaviors are attitudes that support an open mindset to information, a positive attitude, and confidence in oneself and abilities.
How Can Resilience Be Developed in Individuals?
Recovering and learning from mistakes are all critical to resilience. It starts with perceptions and challenges as opportunities for growth. Individuals should work to develop positivity and self-confidence. People with a positive outlook expect and get positive outcomes more often than those without it. In many situations, positivity enhances problem-solving and decision-making and helps people think more creatively. Self-confidence, the other critical enabler of learning, centers on a person's belief in their abilities and a view that they can accomplish what they set out to do. Self-confident people have the advantage of being better able to focus on taking in new information and evaluating its potential usefulness. Resilience is associated with significant benefits to the individual. Individuals who learn the skill of resilience can withstand any setbacks and achieve results regardless of circumstances.
January is still ongoing, and if you have yet to set a resolution, there is no better time than the present. You can start a resolution any day of the year. Resolving to better your life is a commitment. With resilience, you can see it through much more effortlessly than without. I know it is tough trying something new, but the reward of seeing it through to the end is much better than the regret of not doing so. So before you think about giving up on that resolution you intended to keep, understand that it is your perception about yourself; challenge yourself to grow beyond your current circumstances. We are here to be happy and prosperous in life. One of the variables to do so is to develop. Let me know if you need any help building resilience; it's about perceiving your life in a new light. You can achieve anything you put your mind to with enough focus and energy.
Resilience will be your guide to finishing what you started!
"Life doesn't get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient."
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
"Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going."
― Yasmin Mogahed
"Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others."
― Sharon Salzberg
"Like tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold innate reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient."
― Catherine DeVrye, The Gift of Nature
"No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength – if we have the virtue of resilience."
― Eric Greitens, Resilience
"Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive."
― Jean Chatzky
"Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up."
― Mary Holloway