How resilient are you?
Probably those of us who know our own resilience best are those of us who have had to use it to go through extreme situations. We rarely know the extent of a characteristic in ourselves without the testing. As you think of measuring your own resilience what comes to mind? It’s probably the areas in your life where you have struggled and where you continue to feel the need to push through.
Some of us take risks, set up businesses, new ventures, stretch ourselves into doing things out of our comfort zones. When we do this we grow our resilience. If there is no stretch in your life you will not be building your resilience.
Why is resilience so important?
Without resilience we may live in fear. We will strive to build a world around us that is safe and comfortable. Our focus will be on surviving rather than thriving. Without resilience it’s difficult for us to grow and develop and become stronger. If we don’t have opportunities to exercise resilience, we won’t grow it and then when difficulties and challenges come along, we will fold. Sadly, also when opportunities come along we may miss them because we are too afraid of the risk involved in taking them, as we have not built in us enough resilience to know we will be ok.
If we believe we don’t have resilience we won’t take risks, we won’t stretch ourselves and we won’t reach our fullest potential.
Knowing we have resilience helps give us courage and confidence to boldly try out new things, progress well and effectively, to go forward without wavering.
What type of resilience do you feel you need most?
Dictionary meaning of ‘resilience’ – the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Let’s imagine there are different types of resilience; mental, emotional, physical, relational, spiritual.
Which of these do you feel you need to grow in most?
What circumstances are you going through now in which you desire more resilience?
What circumstance are you going through now where God has been growing you in resilience and other ways?
How can we measure how resilient we are and if we have enough?
When you read this definition; the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness, list areas of your life where you feel you do this, ……..then list areas of your life where you are not able to.
This shows you if you have enough and where you can grow.
What can it mean to be resilient?
God can use you incredibly in so many different situations as you are resilient. Obviously, part of your resilience is to learn how to rely on him. He is your protector. When we rely on other coping mechanisms this may give us an illusion that we are resilient, but the only coping mechanism that is reliable is God. Other than that, God can show you strategies to become more resilient, such as self-managing your emotions, learning your triggers and how to manage them, growing in self-confidence and so much more.
How can we self-coach ourselves into better resilience?
We can start by growing our awareness such as analysing where we are strong and where we are not. We can then drill down asking ourselves questions as to what causes us to shrink back or not withstand or recover. There will be fears and self-limiting beliefs that hinder our resilience. Once we know what they are we can prayerfully exchange these fears and limiting beliefs with truth and develop empowering beliefs based on biblical truth. (Getting a co-creative coach can help you with this)
Why?
Because our journeys are not generally easy, maturity of character and maturity of identity which results in maturity of resilience, helps us to enjoy the journey and navigate through difficulties more easily. It also helps us to reach further, take more risks and reach our potential in God and His purpose for us.