How to create a resilient mindset for growth.

What is a resilient mindset?

It is the ability to adapt and bounce back when things don't go as planned. It's being able to learn from mistakes and move forward rather than thinking about our failures.

The benefits of a resilient mindset.

So what are the benefits of having a resilient mindset? It enables you to better handle challenges, uncertainty and when things don’t go according to plan to re-plan. It insulates you from being rocked and shaken by circumstances that are outside of our control, it prepares your body and mind to re-think and re-strategise to overcome.

Resiliency is a muscle.

The start point for resiliency is to know that we don't have a fixed amount of resilience, it's like a muscle, we can build upon what we have. By having this mindset we can start to look for ways to build our resiliency capacity in readiness for when we might need it.

Where do we start?

The place to start is purpose, know your purpose and why. A clear sense of purpose helps you to assess challenges within the framework of a broader perspective. And I believe purpose is the anchor to a resilient mindset, since whatever happens to us, the purpose will always remain the same, the how and the timing may have change but not your purpose. When faced with challenges, going back to our purpose gives us the right perspective and a source of inspiration to navigate the challenges ahead.

Building upon purpose we need add these 4 key daily habits to exercise that resiliency muscle.

#1 Celebrate success no matter how small.

Celebrate success no matter how small. Do this on a personal level and on a team level. Look for achievements on a daily and weekly basis. As long as you are moving forward and as long as you're hitting those milestones you have set, however small they are, however the increments are, celebrate success along the journey, it elicits a positive state of mind. It ensures we keep future focused which creates a thriving mindset.

#2 Reflect.

Whether you’re celebrating success or enduring challenges, make time to reflect and process life. Reflection fosters new learning's, new perspectives, and self-awareness that can enhance your resiliency. Find a place where you can reflect the best.

#3 Practice gratitude.

Practice gratitude, be grateful, be thankful on a daily basis. Expressing gratitude releases dopamine, releases serotonin and these two neurotransmitters are responsible for our feel-good emotions. They make us feel good. They elicit a positive state. So, practice gratitude, be grateful, be thankful on a daily basis. Look for opportunities to be grateful for what you have, there is always something to be thankful for.

#4 Mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a psychological process based on bringing attention to experiences happening in the present moment. In other words, it’s about being connected, aware and present. It’s been proven that organisations that apply mindful tactics, are better equipped to deal with stress. What’s more, mindfulness increases productivity and creativity, improving resilience and emotional intelligence. Indeed, mindfulness seems to change the brain in some specific ways. Broadly speaking, mindfulness increases activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex, an evolutionary recent region of the brain that is important for many of the things that make us human. So I would encourage you to find some mindfulness techniques that would work for you.

And finally, in essence resilience is the universal human capacity to face, overcome, and even be strengthened by experiences of adversity — bending rather than breaking. We are a resilient people to what we have already endured, we can overcome much more as we develop and build our own resiliency.

If you are interested in knowing more about how you can build a resilient culture, I offer training workshops and a self-paced online resilience course aimed at team leaders.