Wednesday’s Word Resilient

a : capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture

b : tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

Psychology Today identifies some of the factors that make someone resilient:

• A positive attitude
• Optimism
• Ability to regulate emotions
• Ability to see failure as a form of helpful feedback

Over the past few years I have reflected many times on where I’ve been and where I’m headed.  I’ve become more adaptable to situations and circumstances by trying and doing things that perhaps I might not have seen myself doing.  I’ve also enjoyed things I never dreamed I would have and surprised myself!  Optimism is something that comes to me pretty naturally (I think I have my mom to thank for this:).  And I almost never view anything I try as a failure.  I’m not sure where I learned this from but I’ve always felt that everything I do I can and will learn from.  Failure is something that happens to all of us in different forms but it’s not the failure itself that’s the lesson, it’s how we learn from experiences and how we bounce back.

Best selling author Seth Godin devotes a whole chapter to Resilience in his book Linchpin.

Here’s an excerpt:

You will fail at this. Often. Why is that a problem? In fact, this is a boon. It’s a boon because when others fail to be remarkable or make a difference or share their art or have an impact, they will give up.  But you won’t, you’ll persist, pushing through the dip.  Which means that few people will walk in the door with your background, experience or persistence.

If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises they lose all heart.  If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined.  If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends, and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life.  A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, is worth a hundred of these city dolls.  He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not “studying a profession” for he does not postone his life, but lives already.  He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Are you resilient in certain areas of your life but not others?