“Emotional resilience – refers to one’s ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. More resilient people are able to “roll with the punches” and adapt to adversity without lasting difficulties; less resilient people have a harder time with stress and life changes, both major and minor.”
Or, the opposite of a financial term I also heard recently, ‘being caught swimming naked’!
Think back to the financial crisis of 2008.
One of the first victims was Woolworths. They had been barely surviving up until that point, and when the crisis hit there was no place left to go.
When a person or business is barely surviving ‘the normal’ they are particularly vulnerable to exceptional challenges – like a financial crisis, or a virus.
If you haven’t been taking care of things like financial control, good processes, health and well-being, you reduce your resilience.
The simplest way of strengthening yourself, or your business resilience, is to have a positive focus on good habits, practices, or routines in place, aligned with a bigger picture.
You can do this by getting clear on your priority values – what’s most important to you. And where you are ultimately headed, aligned with those values, whatever comes along.
Then, when unexpected challenges appear, they do not occur as life threatening, but more as a (big) bump in the road, which you will get over.
When the virus arrived I was clear on my priority values – Health and Growth – and I had a long term vision in place which was clear what 10 out of 10 in every area of my business and life looked like – where I’m ultimately headed.
With a 3 month focus on my profile already in place (the theme – Being The Authority), my web site builders had been instructed, and the new photos shoot was completed just before the ‘lockdown’.
So this continued and was completed during the lockdown period, together with publishing weekly articles on business resilience, also aligned with that 3 month focus on profile.
Clients I know also had their own plans already in place, which continued to be progressed in the background, whilst dealing with the changing day to day circumstances.
‘Rolling with the punches, adapting to adversity without lasting difficulties’ – and emerging more resilient than before as a result of the experience.
Take a look.
What resilience can you acknowledge yourself for in the last 3 months?
And where is the opportunity (there is always something) to develop your resilience – emotional, financial, or physical – for the future?
Make that a focus as we emerge from this period, and give it a positive theme name, something you can share with people for the next phase of your business journey.
