Lebanon is passing through a terrible crisis that is affecting everyone, and one of the reasons so many companies are closing down is that they remained in business as usual mode, or in survival mode. Same applies to people. We chain ourselves to our daily routine and remain in our comfort zones, failing to see what is coming or even to be prepared for it.
Being resilient means bouncing back into shape and recovering quickly, like an elastic band that is stretched but returns to its normal shape and size after being let go. In other words, resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, it is rising from the ashes to becoming the Phoenix again! Pun intended.
Master coach Pauline Sawaya – Founder of Swift Shift, shares her tips and tricks to becoming for resilient in the face of hardship. She is enrolled as a coach in Berytech’s Impact Rise Social Entrepreneurship Scale Up Program.
Traits of Resilience
More than ever today, resilience is needed in every single person in Lebanon. Why? Because resilient people:
- Are flexible and adjust to big life changes: when we fall and learn to get up again, we flex our muscles to change and adapt to unexpected circumstances
- Maintain their focus and are self-driven by a goal: having a purpose and a passion that wakes you up every morning to do what you love to do and having a goal in mind at all times, makes you focused and eager to achieve
- Recover easily from misfortune: flexibility and focus help resilient people recover because they know that they survived their bad days and can move on
- Have mental toughness and enjoy excellent relationships: people love to be and to work with resilient people because they are tough, they understand their emotions and are open to the ups and downs of relationships
Becoming more resilient
People are not born resilient; resilience involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone, and once you develop resilience you become a better version of yourself at all levels.
Rewire your brain to be more flexible
Our brain is like any muscle and it can be trained, so instead of having a fixed mindset, work on a growth mindset, i.e.; you need to believe that you can learn resilience and that you are what you want to be, with persistence and work you will achieve it.
Embrace change
You need to embrace that change is the only constant in our life. In order to leave your comfort zone, you need to work on believing that change is positive and will only lead to positive results. This is crucial.
Separate yourself from the incidents
When we face a challenge, we all tend to stay in the same mindset, but we cannot solve an issue with the same mindset that helped create it. So, you need to step out of yourself and look at it from a different perspective and ask yourself what is the situation telling me?
Take care of yourself & your emotions
We are trained to be givers and to believe that we need to be people-pleasers. Since our childhood, we have been made to fit in a box, whether by our parents, or by our community, even at school. We are forced to do things to please others, so they accept us. Now it is the time to ask yourself, what is important for me? What am I doing for myself? What are the emotions that I am feeling and how are they serving me?
Keep growing & investing in yourself
Once you ask yourself the above questions and focus on ‘you’, you need to start working on yourself, by investing in yourself, in your skills and competencies so you keep growing out of the box of everyone and growing your box. Get a Coach or a mentor.
Stay prepared & live out of your comfort zone
There is nothing called security and in comfort zones nothing happens, ask yourself what magic do I need to bring in my life to make it better, what statusquo do I need to shake, what can I use from my situation today so I am prepared for a better tomorrow?
Nothing beats the power of questions to bring resilience to your life, you are not a tree and you don’t only need to bend, you can move. Every setback is a setup for a comeback, and in the end it is up to you to make the best out of any situation.
About the author
Pauline Sawaya is the Founder of Swift Shift and the Managing Director of Noble Manhattan Coaching Levant. She is an accredited Master Coach from the UK, as well as a leader, consultant, HR, mentor and transformational trainer. Read her profile here.
