8 Steps To Resilience During Disruption & Chaos

The past month has been chaotic. No matter which side of the aisle you sit on, and no matter what perspective you take, what's going on in the world and in our lives is taking a serious toll on our resilience.

Just about everyone I know, especially in the HR space, is struggling to steer a course through the flurry of presidential orders that directly impact their organizations and themselves both professionally and personally.

On top of this, continuing inflation, extreme weather events, egg shortages, and multiple global conflicts are coming at us with more frequency, intensity and unpredictability.

Even the most resilient people I know are struggling and there's good reason for it. Our brains don't do well with uncertainty of any kind. And they especially suffer when they're being hammered by constant unpredictability, disruption and chaos.

I've written about navigating uncertainty in an earlier article, but these are extreme times and we need to take a deeper dive.

If you're someone who loves disruption and thrives in chaos, you can stop reading here! ??

For the rest of us, please read on.

?? Here are the 8 tips I promised:

1. Take a breath.

When lots of things are coming at us from lots of different directions, we get stressed. Our minds and our bodies tense up which makes it hard to think straight. The first step in getting back to resilience is getting calmer and more focused.

?? We've all learned at least one relaxation technique. Whether it's mindfulness or other meditative practice, deep breathing, muscle relaxation, or something similar, pick one that works for you and use it - preferably first thing each morning.

2. Turn it off.

We humans have five highly developed senses. Two of them - sight and sound - can overwhelm our brains all by themselves and in chaotic times we need to be careful about what we're watching and listening to.

?? Try limiting your exposure to news or other information feeds that flow from all sources - TV, personal devices, Google, newspapers, other people. There's way too much data coming our way trying to fill the 24 hour news cycle. Checking in once or twice a day should give you all you need to keep track of what's happening.

3. Check your emotions.

When our resilience capacity drops, we're more likely to get stuck in an emotion that's not serving us well in the moment. Some of us get frustrated or angry. Some get sad. Others feel anxious. Many of us have one emotion that we default to more than any of the others. (Mine is anxiety.)

?? Check in with yourself. Take your emotional pulse. Are you feeling stuck in an emotion that's not serving you well, that's making you feel badly for no good reason?

If you've been to an Adaptiv resilience training course, use the Trap it, Map it, Zap it (TMZ) Skill to think your way around a non-resilient emotion. If not, scroll down to the Trap it, Map it, Zap it section of this Resilience At Work newsletter.

4. Check your thinking.

Resilient people tend to view most problems they face as relatively temporary and specific to the task at hand. We call this Not Always / Not Everything thinking. In fact, just about every adversity we encounter is short-lived (Not Always) and damage-controllable (Not Everything).

But when we're being bombarded by too much news, negativity and noise, it makes the stuff we're working through feel much more permanent and pervasive. We call this Always / Everything thinking. When the situations we're grappling with start looking like we can't get around, through, or past them, we often stop trying. This is bad for resilience and results.

?? If you find yourself feeling frustrated, angry or discouraged, and a bit helpless and hopeless, it's probably because you're falling into Always / Everything thinking. There's an Adaptiv Resilience Skill to avoid this called Flexing Around Your Why Style. Check out this Resilience At Work newsletter to learn more.

5. Get wise.

At the risk of oversimplifying, staying resilient amid all the disruption and chaos is essentially getting better at living the Serenity Prayer - coming to peace with the things we can't change, and putting our energy toward things that we can.

The problem is that when our resilience tank is low or on empty, it's harder to see the difference between the two. We're more likely to start beating our heads against things we can do little or nothing about, and to miss ways that we could move the ball forward.

?? So if you find yourself getting hijacked emotionally by something that's out of your control, here's a mantra that works for me.

In this moment, I choose not to let this situation rob me of my serenity and grace.

I came up with this to help me keep it together in the car when someone cuts me off or does something stupid and I get really angry. Give it a try.

6. Do one thing.

No matter what's happening and regardless of how stuck you feel, always ask yourself, "What's one thing I can do right now to change this situation for the better, or to make myself feel better?"

?? Sometimes the best answer is to take a break! Go outside. Take a walk. Enjoy nature. Work out. Meditate.

7. Reach out.

I just finished a Zoom meeting with ISA — The Association of Learning Providers. It was a meetup with about 30 fellow ISA members and training company owners to talk about current events and how they were affecting our businesses, our customers, and the world at large.

We shared openly about how we were feeling and what we were doing to work around the challenges that we were all facing. I came away not only feeling less alone but also armed with a couple of specific things I could do to help myself and my business stay strong.

Thanks in particular to my breakout group members Greg Schinkel , Carla Caputo-Searcy , Susan Smith , Cara Silletto, MBA, CSP , Jamie Remsberg , Gwen Acton, PhD , Nathan Regier, Ph.D. and Deborah Molique for all their energy and support.

?? So don't go it alone. Seek out a trusted friend, adviser, or work group that can help you keep your head on straight and stay in the game.

8. Choose Positivity

When you've done everything you can to get back to resilience by following steps 1 through 7, err on the side of optimism and positivity.

?? But when we're stressed, getting from negativity to positivity can be a big emotional leap. There's a skill for that - the Adaptiv STAR Technique. You can learn more about it in this Resilience At Work newsletter.

Please comment below to let me know how these tools are working for you.

What are some ways that you're staying resilient in the midst of disruption and chaos?

Thanks!

Dean Becker is a recognized expert in the fields of resilience and emotional intelligence, having founded Adaptiv Learning Systems, a leader in the development and delivery of research-based assessments, coaching and training programs. Dean delivers training, consulting and executive coaching services, speaks and writes about resilience and emotional intelligence to organizations worldwide.

Dean holds an MBA in Medical Group Management from University of St. Thomas, and a BA in Psychology from Franklin & Marshall College. He is a member of PSPS, GVFHRA, ATD/ATD Philly, and sits on the board of ISA – The Association of Learning Providers.

Adaptiv Learning develops and delivers a full range of resilience and leadership assessments, custom resilience and emotional intelligence training programs, executive coaching services, to senior executives, human resources teams, sales teams, and individuals in all organizational verticals.