Developing Extraordinary(ikˈstrôrdnˌerē,ˌekstrəˈôrdn-) Resilience(riˈzilyəns)

Developing Extraordinary(ikˈstrôrdnˌerē,ˌekstrəˈôrdn-) Resilience(riˈzilyəns)

By Leo Babauta

We’re all beset with difficulties, obstacles(ˈäbstəkəl), pain, tiredness, and a thousand other setbacks, small and large.

What determines whether we take these setbacks in stride(strīd), or let them bring us down, is something that psychologists(sīˈkäləjist) call “resilience.” It’s an ability(əˈbilitē) to come back from setbacks, adapt(əˈdapt), learn, but not be dragged down by these setbacks.

I’ve found resilience to be an important factor in my own journey(ˈjərnē), from struggling through finances(fəˈnans,ˈfīnans) and health changes over the years, to navigating(ˈnaviˌgāt) the scary (ˈske(ə)rē) and uncertain waters of running my own business.

Resilience has allowed me to:

Run several marathons(ˈmarəˌTHän) and an ultramarathon(ˈəltrə) (among other physical(ˈfizikəl) challenges(ˈCHalənj)) despite(diˈspīt) injuries and other training setbacks.

Write numerous(ˈn(y)o͞om(ə)rəs) books and courses(kôrs), even in the middle of personal challenges, fears, delays(diˈlā) due to procrastination(prō-,prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən), and more.

Face challenges such as debt(det) or declining(diˈklīn) income with a positive(ˈpäztiv,ˈpäzətiv) attitude(ˈatiˌt(y)o͞od), and deal with the challenges as they come.

Raise(rāz) six kids (with perhaps a little help from my wife) no matter what difficulties they face, or what personal baggage(ˈbagij) I’m bringing as a father.

Deal with deaths(deTH) in the family with an open heart, not only finding compassion(kəmˈpaSHən) for my own grief(grēf) but helping(ˈhelpiNG) my family members in the midst(midst,mitst) of theirs.

None of this is to brag(brag), but it’s to show the power of simple resilience. I’m not greater than any other human, but resilience has helped me deal with these difficulties, as I’m sure it has for many of you.

It’s such a powerful thing, resilience … but how do you develop it? Because make no mistake: it’s a set of skills, a set of capacities(kəˈpasitē), that can be developed over time. Some people might be born with greater tendencies(ˈtendənsē) toward resiliency, but we can all get better at it.

I’m going to offer a set of practices(ˈpraktəs) that you can work on, if you want to develop extraordinary resiliency. I hope you find them useful.

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https://zenhabits.net/resilience/