How can you build resilience in a high-pressure work environment?

1 Assess your stressors

The first step to building resilience is to identify and understand the sources of your stress. What are the triggers, demands, and expectations that cause you to feel overwhelmed, anxious, or frustrated? How do you react to them emotionally, physically, and mentally? By assessing your stressors, you can gain more awareness and insight into your stress patterns and responses, and how they affect your performance and well-being.

2 Manage your energy

The second step to building resilience is to manage your energy effectively. Energy is the fuel that drives your actions, decisions, and creativity. To optimize your energy, you need to balance the four dimensions of energy: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. This means taking care of your body, mind, heart, and purpose. Some ways to do this are to get enough sleep, exercise, nutrition, and hydration; to focus on one task at a time and avoid distractions; to express and regulate your emotions; and to align your work with your values and goals.

3 Cultivate a growth mindset

The third step to building resilience is to cultivate a growth mindset. A growth mindset is the belief that you can learn, improve, and overcome challenges through effort, feedback, and practice. A growth mindset helps you to embrace change, uncertainty, and failure as opportunities to grow and learn, rather than threats to avoid or fear. To develop a growth mindset, you need to adopt a positive and optimistic attitude, seek constructive feedback, learn from your mistakes, and celebrate your progress and achievements.

4 Build supportive relationships

The fourth step to building resilience is to build supportive relationships. Relationships are the source of social support, which is the feeling of being cared for, valued, and connected to others. Social support helps you to cope with stress, enhance your well-being, and achieve your goals. To build supportive relationships, you need to communicate effectively, listen empathetically, offer and ask for help, express gratitude and appreciation, and collaborate and cooperate with others.

5 Practice self-compassion

The fifth step to building resilience is to practice self-compassion. Self-compassion is the act of treating yourself with kindness, understanding, and forgiveness, especially when you face difficulties, failures, or shortcomings. Self-compassion helps you to reduce self-criticism, guilt, and shame, and to increase self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-care. To practice self-compassion, you need to acknowledge your feelings, accept your imperfections, and take action to meet your needs.

6 Learn new skills

The sixth step to building resilience is to learn new skills. Skills are the abilities and competencies that enable you to perform tasks and solve problems effectively. Learning new skills helps you to adapt to changing demands, enhance your capabilities, and increase your value. To learn new skills, you need to identify your learning goals, find relevant resources and opportunities, apply and practice your skills, and evaluate and improve your outcomes.