Five Top Tips for Building Resilience

With the constant worry of financial uncertainties, job instabilities and stifling workloads, it is therefore important to learn how best to cope with increasing stress levels.

Preparing for unexpected challenges or turns in both our personal and professional lives can require a conscious effort. In order to practice and develop resilience it is important to try to reflect on current coping mechanisms, stress related triggers and evaluate what needs to change, where you need support, and indeed, where you are succeeding.

So what are my five top tips for building resilience?

1. Keep Control
Start by identifying what you can and can’t control. Stress is increased when we perceive our ability to cope to be out matched by what is demanded of us, so too many tasks or unrealistic objectives will reduce productivity and create frustration. Planning and organisation can combat this, however it is equally important to accept that there may be situations or tasks that fall outside of your control. Accepting this will have a dramatic result on stress levels.

2. Think Positive
Positive thinking creates a positive mindset. Placing a positive spin on challenges will help to build your resilience against any potentially negative situations. Try to consider the opportunities and advantages available in each set challenge, as opposed to the negatives or difficulties. By viewing tasks that stretch your abilities as a positive thing, it will make you more likely to engage and ultimately succeed.

3. Play to your Strengths
Make sure you are aware of where your strengths lie. It is important to work to your strengths and use these to your advantage. Often we find the things that we are naturally good at are the easiest, so this is when we perform at our best. Using your strengths to your advantage will boost your confidence and self-esteem and allow you to understand what it is that makes you a success – this can only help you approach new challenges creatively and confidently.

It is also important to ensure that you have energy to approach new tasks and tackle new stresses. Never underestimate the importance of a healthy amount of food, sleep and exercise in helping to deal with stress.

4. Secure Structured Support
Our psychological and physiological health has been linked with levels of social support, and the more you have, the more likely you are to succeed. Make sure you are maximising your social support by spending time with people who energise you – focus your time with these people rather than on those who drain your energy.

5. Find New Challenges
Not only will new challenges create variety, test your potential and enrich your experience, but they will also provide you with the right tools for managing positive stress. New challenges encourage us to view change positively. Without new challenges there would be a lack of opportunities to better ourselves. We can secure a rewarding sense of achievement and pride from stretching ourselves, trying something new and ultimately succeeding.

By beginning to practice and master these five stages we can build our resilience and better cope with the uncertainties and changes we are increasingly facing. Uncertainty and ambiguity is beginning to become the new norm, so lets embrace it, and spin it into an exciting and positive opportunity to master new beginnings. With the safety net of our newly built resilience we can master our current stress, future opportunities and uncertain changes both in our career and personal situations.

Zara Seager, Leadership Development and Coaching Consultant at StrengthsPartnership.