Have you flexed your muscles today?

A few years ago, I read an article [1] from Harvard Business Review (HBR) that altered my thought patterns and continues to make an impact on my daily life. It introduced me to my favourite muscle, resilience.

re·sil·ience

/rəˈzilyəns/

noun

1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

2. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.

No, it doesn’t mean people with high resilience are always joyful and happy, a common misperception of the word. Instead, having resilience gives you the ability to not be so quick to label something that happens to you “good” or “bad”, but rather be quick to accepting what happened. Resilience is emotional elasticity at its finest.

The HBR article prompts you to alter your thinking and use the question “Good thing, bad thing, who knows?” when confronted with a situation. It allows you to self reflect and find a path of possibility. The more I’ve pondered this question when faced with situations over the years, the more strength I have in controlling my initial perception. Caution: it may cause you to become an eternal optimist and see the good in situations.

Check out this three-step process from HBR and reflect on a situation in your life where you could apply it: