Have you known people that seem to bounce back no matter the issue and seem to become even stronger by facing adversity straight on? I have.
Elizabeth Edwards said, “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something good.”
Problems and setbacks don't go away, planning and good intentions can't prevent them from happening, but we can decide how you are going to deal with them. I am a stoical person by nature and a minimalist about material things. That is how I roll, so losing possessions in hard times hasn't phased me because I have faith in myself that I can overcome any material losses.
It is harder to lose emotional and prestige losses. Who you are is not determined by your job title or rank in some hierarchy. Do not use that as a yardstick, resilient people share certain characteristics that help them cope. Here are some of them I have observed.
1)They see both successes and setbacks as a temporary phenomenon.
2)They push past failure and experiment with other means of achieving their goals
3) They engage others to examine what worked and didn't work in their situation.
4) They see their failure through clear eyes and understand their part in it.
5) They refrain from blaming others and spend time on what they could correct.
"Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" - John Wooden
