Here you will find a summary of some of the building blocks laid out The School of Resilience: The Art of Rising and Falling, A how to guide for creatively getting up in life. A guide for those who wonder how they can successfully navigate the hills, mountains and valleys of life so that they may never let any crisis, however big or small, go to waste. And steps that, I hope, help you build your dreams out of the ashes.
What does resilience even mean and where do we find it?
What we speak of resilience we refer to our ability to get up after a fall. I do not like to speak of failure, because failure somehow implies that there is an end to our path, when really things never end in life. Each step or experience along the path just takes us onto our next adventure. I think it would be much worse to never fall, because it would mean that we never tried things and lived fully. If we are talking about increasing our resilience, it means increasing the speed with which, when we inevitably fall, we are able to learn and get back on our feet. All experience positive or negative becomes a lesson in life and nourishes our path, because each experience has its own and unique learning. Each one of us is resilient, but the majority of us never calls on our capacity for resilience during our lives because when things are sufficiently comfortable, when all goes well, we do not need to pick ourselves up and rebuild ourselves. It is during moments of crisis like this one that we are obliged to find the resources within us.
What is the key to activating your resilience?
The key to activate your own resilience is to identify the resources You already have within you. Women often have many complexes regarding our own authority and credibility to do things. Instead of thinking about what we have, we often think about what we lack, and what we think we need. We have to realize that we already have all the power within us to do and accomplish anything we want. Our life experience and path are unique and that gives us enough of a voice to Contribute in a meaningful way. Today, we just have to look at the world and think about how it will be tomorrow and where exactly we want to contribute that voice, but nothing needs to be Reinvented and we never start from zero. On the contrary we begin with infinite abundance. To be resilient we need to identify and build on these strengths and forget about our weaknesses.
The second element is to understand Our “why” or purpose in life. The crisis has removed many means of communication and interaction, but it has also offered us the opportunity to try new ones. I believe that once we understand our “why” we can easily identify new ways and opportunities for realizing that why. When we really look we will discover that there are many ways to convey our message, it is just the means to do so that change. Once we have found our “why,” figuring out our how is easy…
What are some concrete suggestions to start building resilience right now?
To transform any dream into reality one has to pass from idea to action and to do it right away. If we really think about it we can always find a tiny action that we can take to launch our project or idea today without needing anything more than what we already have (this can be as simple as contacting someone or doing research abut a subject on our computer). Once we launch our ideas, we get into a dynamic, which means that the world can respond to our actions (someone can contact us, endless small things can move in our favor to boost our work). AND THIS IS an exceptional time to connect with people and tell them about our projects, people are more available than usual and happy to be engaged and contributing to something. It is our duty to share our work. And lots of incredible things can happen when our work gets in front of other people’s eyes. But for that whatever we do must exist out into the world and not just in our heads.
And once our project is out into the world, we can also learn from the feedback We receive and ever so small failures to readjust every bit of the way. Even if confined, do not work on your ideas alone, share each piece with others and along the way take all the advice, suggestions, and ideas that you can. If there is something to correct you will know right away.
And This is the time to take risks more than ever before (this is the time to do so given that the world as we know it has been indefinitely suspended). Risks make us grow and discover new horizons. This is the time to try things that you have never tried. Of course in the beginning you will be afraid, because human beings have always been afraid of the unknown. It is definitely ok to be afraid because the definition of courage is to go ahead regardless of fear, it is not the absence of fear. And each step along the journey, each experience, each result and each hardship will teach You just a bit more.
We also all need To create a support community because we need to engage with others, share our ideas and our emotional state. It makes it much easier to pick yourself up after each fall if others can lift you, if you are not alone We are much more powerful in realizing our dreams and ambitions if we can rely on those who surround us for support.
How can we have confidence in the future and in ourselves?
Today we are going through a lot of uncertainty and unknowns and that can weigh a lot on us.
I do not find it to be very comforting to say that everything will be perfect in the best of all possible worlds once you take the risk to launch something. On the contrary, launching yourself into anything in life is Always a learning. You Will inevitably faced Countless hardships in the beginning. Every project has its highs and lows. I believe that having confidence in the future comes down to having confidence in oneself, and to have confidence in the fact that once difficult moments arise you will be able to find solutions; you will handle them. When I tell myself that, it makes it much easier for me to believe in myself.
So seize today to build and design the future that you want for yourself tomorrow. Take full advantage of the opportunities this time offers, without forgetting that any every project is first and foremost you, so always take good care for yourself first !