“Our struggle was not a flash in the pan.
I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal.”
– Winnie Mandela
Resilience. The sound of the word itself innocently belies the inherent strength it proclaims. Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It is because it is the ability to recover from or adjust with some ease to misfortune or change that it is also considered a synonym of toughness. A resilient person has the capability to cope in the face of daunting challenges, setbacks, barriers or limited resources. That is perhaps why resilience is easily also a measure of just how much one desires something, and how much one is willing to sacrifice, through a combination of ability and willingness, to get that thing, or attain that goal.
Without doubt, resilience demands a certain degree of emotional strength. That cannot be otherwise since resilience also hints at some core inner strength. In conjuring up the image of a ball bouncing back to its thrower, it means to survive in the School of Hard Knocks. Indeed, if human existence can be likened to the University of Life, then the resilient leader is necessarily one of its first class or summa cum laude graduates, depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on. Definitely, it means to be the proverbial cat with nine lives.
The resilient leader knows that life is not all about her alone. Quite often, such a leader is aware, possibly at a subconscious level, that she has been brought into this turbulent world to be an instrument of massive transformation in the lives of others. This can be a powerful source of motivation for survival in such people. It tends to give them the psychological strength to cope with stress, hardship and other vicissitudes of life. It also serves as the mental reservoir of strength that such leaders are able to draw upon in times of adversity.
Resilient leaders tend to remain in acute awareness of critical situations and the behavior of those around them. It is this awareness that allows them to maintain firm and effective control of a situation, while innovating fresh perspectives to solve problems. It takes courage to traverse the vicissitudes of life. That is why courage is almost synonymous with resilience.
How to Gain Access to Your Power of Resilience
1. Develop the capacity and capability to recover rapidly from difficulties.
2. Come into the knowledge that resilience is synonymous with toughness. Therefore, resilience is also your capability to cope in the face of daunting challenges, setbacks, barriers or limited resources.
3. Be prepared to sacrifice time, effort and resources, because resilience is also a measure of just how much you desire your objective, and how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve it.
4. Be prepared to deploy a combination of ability and willingness to achieve your goal.
5. Resilience will demand a great deal of emotional strength from you.
6. Be prepared to be an instrument of massive transformation in the lives of others.
7. Be prepared to remain in awareness of critical situations, and the behaviour of those around you.
8. Develop courage, because courage, also, is almost synonymous with resilience.
An extract from “The Art Of Iconic Leadership; Power Secrets of Female World Leaders.” Justina Mutale