Running and managing your own business can be one of the hardest challenges of your life. The ups, the downs, the cash flow challenges, finding the right people – the list is endless. Likewise, though, are the ups in terms of success: winning the next deal, finding the best employees to help you.
However, one common trait business leaders possess is their ability to battle through the hard times, by way of resilience – a heroic struggle that is not for all. Resilience is not something we are born with, but instead is something we develop during our lifetimes. Below are the five essential tips on how to become more resilient.
- Keep a positive attitude.
- Develop your moral compass.
- Find a resilient role model and develop your coping skills.
- Build your social network and physical fitness.
- Remember the 8-8-8 rule.
This is key to deflecting stress scenarios, to restructuring your pessimistic or negative thoughts. You need to ask yourself whether there is any rational basis to feel negatively about a situation.
It is also important to recognize that you are in control as to whether the glass is half-empty or half-full. Reframing your thoughts can also help you to be positive, so that you can alter the perceived value of the challenging event by accepting it and recovering from it.
Altruism is strongly related to resilience – and strengthening your set of core beliefs can help. The authors note that there is a strong correlation between faith and religious or spiritual beliefs and resilience.
Consider taking a resilient role model, such as a world leader or a successful business or sports star, so that you can consider how they would respond to stress. Also consider how spiritual beliefs help towards a deeper management of challenging times.
Rather than withdrawing and surrendering to your stress situations, the most resilient individuals use active rather than passive coping skills. You could minimise the self-questioning caused by the stress situation by creating positive thinking and in turn facing the fear directly.
Rather than going solo, it is important to build a safety net of friends and family to help cope with stress situations. Regular exercise is one of the keys to cleansing your mind of stress – as it has been linked to improvements in mood, cognition, regulation of emotion, immunity, and overall self-esteem. Try to think of exercise as a welcome reprieve rather than a task, framing your mindset in a positive way.
On a typical day, many people are over-worked, with lack of sleep and limited social or personal time. By breaking the day into thirds – eight hours for work, eight hours for personal / family time and eight hours for sleep – is recommended as a suitable routine to help you keep on top of the mental daily stresses.