Everyone views his or her own life challenges in a highly personal way. What some people may say is an incredibly difficult work situation; others may say that those kinds of demanding circumstances get them juiced.

That is a function of our DNA and life experiences.

Resilience is a bit like politics; it is all local, and that locality usually begins with those 4 or 5 inches of matter between our ears.

I was talking to a client a few days ago who was understandably upset about a report written about his business group’s poor operational effectiveness. He disputed the findings and did his best to explain away the identified problems. When I took a look at the report, jumped to the last page and showed him the recommendations, he tenor changed. He took a breath, reviewed the suggestions and said that they were pretty reasonable and he could see how they would improve his operations.

Sometimes, it just requires a change of perspective. Other times we have to accept other’s points of view. In some instances, we must claim the failure and learn the most we can from it.

There aren’t an unlimited number of ways to be resilient. Actually, there are just a few. Regardless, each of us is born with a built in capacity for recovery and growth and that is our resilience heritage.

Take the opportunity this week to reconnect with a challenge that you’ve been avoiding at work or at home and take another shot at it. You may find some new success that you weren’t expecting and that time provides.

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2018

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