What does it mean to be resilient?

The definition of stretched is “of something soft or elastic be made or be capable of being made longer or wider without tearing or breaking.”

I’ve been studying resiliency lately, listening to podcasts, reading books, and doing so because I feel like, recently, I’m being stretched. I also see colleagues and team members who seem stretched as well.

During one of the resiliency podcasts I was listening to, the speaker said that we don’t bounce back we rebound forward further. I’m paraphrasing but I loved the concept!

We don’t necessarily go back to where we were before because the situation changes us!

Go back to the definition above. It refers to something soft changing into something bigger without breaking. How cool is that? I don’t know about you but there are times when I feel soft when I feel like I can’t take on anymore and somehow, someway, I keep pushing and I do come out stronger.

When we’re at the gym, we mold that soft body by stretching it past the point we think we can handle only to find out that we break through barriers we never dreamed possible before. This girl started at the gym with 2lb weights and while I’m far from my goal, I’m proud to say that depending on the exercise I’m using 15, 25 and even 35-pound weights for circuits. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that was possible a few years ago.

We do this mentally as well. Once our mind has been stretched to what’s possible, we can’t go back to our old way of thinking!

Shift towards possibility thinking:

Recently I coached a team member who was missing the mark on her proactive sales activities.  We had a great conversation and shifted towards possibility thinking. She is now consistently producing five times more than she was just a few weeks before. What happened? Did she suddenly have extra hours in her day? Did her workload in other areas disappear? Did the worries of her personal life vanish? No, they were all still there, but she stretched herself one day to blast through to a record-breaking number of sales activities that introduced her to what was possible.

You can do this too!

Ask yourself:

• What areas of your life do you feel like you’re being stretched?
• What would stretching even further look like?

We can either react to circumstances that will stretch us or feel like they’re breaking us, or we can set ourselves up for growth by creating those circumstances.

I’d rather take charge of those opportunities and break barriers to feel empowered and confident.

What can you do today to stretch so that you feel a heightened sense of resiliency?