Resilience and success skills

Resilience and success skills are crucial in today's society. In a world that is constantly changing and unpredictable, it is essential to be able to adapt, bounce back from setbacks, and develop the skills needed to thrive. Resilience is the ability to overcome adversity, cope with stress and hardship, and emerge stronger as a result. Success skills, on the other hand, are the set of abilities, traits, and knowledge that help individuals achieve their goals, reach their potential, and succeed in their personal and professional lives. In this article, we will explore the importance of resilience and success skills in daily life, discussing their benefits and how they can be developed. We will also examine the various ways in which these skills can positively impact individuals and communities, as well as some tips and strategies for cultivating them. Whether you are a student, a professional, or simply someone looking to better navigate life's challenges, the insights provided in this article will undoubtedly be beneficial.

Life is full of challenges. Some people seem to meet every challenge with confidence, while others struggle to overcome them. Pittas especially get a sense of satisfaction from facing challenges head on—it brings a sense of accomplishment and can be very fulfilling. On some level, you actually seek challenges. Your highest self wants you to learn and grow, and life’s most effective tool toward growth is experience.

The problem is that all too often you might find yourself faced with the same challenges over and over again, and that’s when you start to lose motivation to face the issue and lose sight of the potential lesson. At that point, challenges can become problems that can spiral you into despair and frustration.

As a co-creator of your own reality, you have the ability to overcome these challenges. It is with this sense of responsibility and awareness that you can begin your journey into a higher state of consciousness where challenges are no longer challenges, but opportunities to get a glimpse of your highest self.

Here are some ways to better accept and meet your personal challenges, whatever they may be.

Face the Challenge

In many cases this is the most important step, the most obvious step, yet it is also the most often missed. People spend time looking for a way around the issue, or wallowing in despair at the enormity of the challenge, instead of facing it. Even mundane things, like a pileup of laundry or work, get ignored. Putting a challenge off doesn’t make it go away. This is true of big challenges, as well as the small ones. The most important thing you can do is face what’s in front of you head on.

Be Present

Do not underestimate the power of being present. If you make a practice of facing your challenges—even in failure—with full presence and awareness, you will find most challenges are not challenges at all. Instead life’s challenges become messages from the universe. Meditation can help you cultivate silent awareness and is a good tool to help bring that focus to yourself during difficult times.

You can ask yourself questions that help you better understand the problem and how it affects you.

Why is this a challenge?

Do I believe that I am capable of being successful at this challenge?

What are the possible outcomes if I succeed?

What is the outcome if I fail?

These questions are not meant to solve the problem, rather they are meant to help bring you into fuller awareness of the challenge itself and your emotional reaction to it.

Look to Your SELF for the Solution

Others can help you arrive at your own understanding, but no one ever solves your problems for you. Even in circumstances where someone else is acting as an authority or partner, only you can decide for yourself how you will process the situation. The longer you spend searching for guidance outside of yourself, the longer you spend ignoring the problem. Asses the situation, your resources, and your abilities, and then act. Your action may include enlisting help from others, but it will be your challenge to solve. The sooner you take up the challenge, the quicker it stops being a problem.

Know Yourself

Challenges are opportunities to grow. That growth takes place out of potentiality, your potentiality, which is infinite and highly active in every moment of life. Come to know yourself as that. You are pure potential experiencing life through what seems like limitation. Challenges are spikes in that imaginary limitation barrier that guide you to awareness. You decide: Are you limited or are you an ever-expansive growth of consciousness and love? Choose the latter, and take another look at that so-called challenge you’ve been facing.

There is a reason why certain challenges seem hard to you while others breeze right through the same situations. It’s not because they are better than you. It’s all about consciousness. Those who face challenging tasks have found a way to avoid seeing those activities as challenges.

Detach From the Outcome

Stressing about the potential outcome is often what turns a molehill into a mountain. Once you shift your focus to the thing you’re actually doing, instead of the result, the most intimidating parts of the trial start to disappear. If you simply perform the task at hand without worrying about the outcome, you have power over the situation.

Some challenges seem enormous and harsh, but if you remain centered and full of awareness, no challenge is too big to meet with power and grace.

Balancing Your Life

Mental health means striking a balance in all aspects of your life: social, physical, spiritual, economic and mental. Reaching a balance is a learning process. At times, you may tip the balance too much in one direction and have to find your footing again. Your personal balance will be unique, and your challenge will be to stay mentally healthy by keeping that balance.

Here are some suggestions to help you find and keep your balance.

Build healthy self-esteem

Self-esteem is more than just seeing your good qualities. It is being able to see all your abilities and weaknesses together, accepting them, and doing your best with what you have. For example, you may not play tennis well enough to be a star, but that should not stop you from enjoying the game.

Build confidence – Take a good look at your good points. What do you do best? Where are your skills and interest areas? How would a friend describe you? Now, look at your weak points. What do you have difficulty doing? What things make you feel frustrated? Take a look at this list. Remember that all of us have our positive and negative sides. We let our strengths shine, and we build on our weak points to help us mature and grow.

Receive as well as give

Many of us confuse having a realistic view of our good points with conceit. We have trouble accepting kindness from others. We often shrug off a compliment with a, “Yes, but…” and put ourselves down.

Accept compliments – The next time someone compliments you, say, “Thank you! I’m glad you think so.” Then think about other compliments you have had, and how good they made you feel.

Create positive parenting and family relationships

Work on building good family relationships. Learn to value each member’s skills and abilities. Learn how to give and accept support.

Make time – Make time just to be a family. Schedule time for both serious things and fun. Listen respectfully without interruption to what each person has to say. Do it frequently.

Make friends who count

Friends help you understand that you are not alone. They help you by sharing your “ups” and “downs”, and you in turn help them. Together, you and your friends share life’s challenges and celebrate life’s joys.

Build a “friendship tree” – Keep in touch – invite a friend to lunch. Encourage new friendships – ask your friend to bring someone you have never met.

Figure out your priorities

Advertisers try very hard to convince us that we “need” their products and services. Our challenge is to know the difference between our real needs (food, shelter, clothing, transportation) and our “wants” (bigger TV, new CD player, the latest fashions, flashy car), and to find the right balance in our spending. Financial problems cause stress, so it’s important to avoid over-spending.

Create a meaningful budget – Write out a budget for yourself. Is it realistic? Have you planned what to do with the money left over for your “wants”? Which “wants” are most important to you?

Get involved

Being involved in things that really matter to us provide a great feeling of purpose and satisfaction. You should always remember that you make a difference, no matter how big or small your efforts.

Volunteer – Read to children at your local library; visit an elderly person at home or in hospital; serve on a committee or the board of your favourite charity; organize a clean-up of a local park or beach; help a neighbour clean out his/her garage.

Learn to manage stress effectively

Stress is a normal part of life. How you deal with it will depend on your attitude. You may become overwhelmed by things that other people deal with easily. Learning to keep a balance among work, family and leisure is difficult and needs skillful management of your time. Planning helps, and so does staying calm.

Take a five-minute vacation – Each day, set aside five minutes for a mental health break. Close your office door or go into another room, and day-dream about a place, person or idea, or think about nothing at all! You will feel like you have been on a mini-vacation.

Cope with changes that affect you

It would be nice to “live happily ever after”, but there will always be challenges in our lives. Children have accidents, parents get ill, jobs disappear. Dealing with these unexpected (and often unwanted) changes can be stressful, so we need to be flexible and learn ways to cope.

Find strength in numbers – Search out a support group that deals with the issues you are facing. By teaming up with people who share your problems, you may find a fresh solution. Try starting a group of your own by using the public service announcements in your local newspaper, radio station or TV station.

Deal with your emotions

We are all challenged to find safe and constructive ways to express and share our feelings of anger, sadness, joy and fear. Your ways of experiencing and expressing emotions are unique because you are unique.

Identify and deal with your moods – Find out what makes you happy, sad, joyful or angry. How can you deal with your moods? Share joyful news with a friend; “cry on a friend’s shoulder” when you feel blue. Physical exercise can help you deal with your anger. Keep a stack of your favourite funny cartoons or a collection of humorous stories or video tapes for times when you feel the need to laugh.

Have a spirituality to call your own

Learn to be at peace with yourself. Get to know who you are: what makes you really happy, what you are really passionate about. Learn to balance what you are able to change about yourself with what you cannot change. Get to know and trust your inner self.

Spend quality time with yourself – Set aside time to be totally alone. Do a breathing exercise – try counting your breaths from one to four, then start at one again. Or do something you love to do, like dancing, going to a baseball game or building a bird house – whatever works for you!

Feeling uninspired? This happens at times, but you can get your creative juices flowing again following some easy steps.

You’ve probably experienced moments when a new thought appears out of nowhere.

During this moment of inspiration, you may feel excited and find the motivation to create new things, solve problems, or pursue goals.

But if inspiration isn’t happening as much as it used to, it can make you feel stuck in a cycle of frustration and self-doubt.

If you are feeling this way, you’re not alone. Even the most successful people have difficulty finding inspiration or identifying what inspires them.

Your ability to be inspired isn’t gone forever, but it may need a bit of encouragement to appear once again.

What is inspiration?

Derived from the Latin word “inspirare,” meaning to “breathe into,” inspiration is the feeling of being mentally stimulated to manifest what we want to create.

Being inspired can give you the ideas and desire you need to:

solve complex problems

develop something new and exciting

change directions in your life

Inspiration embodies positive thinking and awareness of the possibilities. It’s free of limitations and represents pure, spontaneous thought.

How is inspiration linked to mental health?

When something inspires you, your motivation and excitement can increase. This, in turn, can lead to:

improved clarity

higher energy levels

more creativity

Feeling inspired can elevate your mood and contribute to a positive outlook and general sense of well-being.

Persistently feeling uninspired and unmotivated can be a sign of low mood or a symptom of depression.

If you have felt unmotivated and hopeless for more than 2 weeks, it might be a good idea to talk with a mental health professional.

How to find inspiration in 8 steps

Sometimes finding inspiration isn’t about actively pursuing it but allowing it to find you.

For example, you may recall inspiration hitting you at the most unexpected times, like while driving or in the shower. Most likely, those were times you permitted thoughts to manifest naturally without conscious effort.

Strategies that may allow inspiration into your life include:

1. Changing things up

Exploring new locations or just getting out of the house can help with creative ideas.

According to one 2021 study, gazing at aesthetically pleasing artwork may help spur inspiration. So, it might be worth adding a trip to an art museum to your list of new things to do.

Switching routines or doing something you’ve never done before can also help you with creativity.

“Exploration is a wonderful way to open our eyes to the world, and to truly see that impossible is just a word.”

— Richard Branson, entrepreneur

2. Journaling your ideas

Inspiration may occur if you spend some time allowing your thoughts to flow without limitations.

For example, try to give yourself the freedom to jot down any idea or goal that comes to mind without thinking about the challenges they present or worrying much about the how.

If you’re having a hard time letting it flow, try using writing prompts to spark that creative energy.

“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.”

— Earl Nightingale, former American radio speaker and author

3. Immersing yourself in nature

Nature provides an environment for letting go of intrusive thoughts and worries, allowing creativity to flow. Consider taking a stroll through a park or visiting a community garden to help ignite your inspiration.

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

— Albert Einstein, German physicist and developer of the theory of relativity

4. Remembering who you are

How do you know what inspires you? By connecting to yourself and what matters to you.

Feeling uninspired about life may be a result of focusing on things that may not align with your true self or life purpose. Perhaps you’ve lost touch with activities you were once passionate about, or you’ve left some of your dreams behind.

If this resonates with you, consider taking some time to reacquaint yourself with what used to inspire you or activities you once enjoyed.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

— Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chairman of Apple Computer Inc.

5. Working on your self-esteem

When you aren’t feeling positive about yourself or tend to self-sabotage, you may less likely feel inspired. Self-respect is critical to inspiration.

If so, consider learning ways to boost your feelings of self-worth, overcome impostor syndrome, or manage self-doubt so inspiration can flow.

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”

— Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter and artist

6. Asking yourself, ‘What would I do if fear wasn’t a factor?’

Fear is a natural human emotion. When it shows up, inspiration may not have a safe place to land in your thought process.

So, by allowing yourself to brainstorm ideas without fear or judgment, you may find that new concepts flow more freely.

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”

— George Addair, minister and founder of the Omega Vector Foundation

7. Surrounding yourself with inspiring people

Inspiration can be contagious. Consider being around people who are experiencing a creative flow state.

If you have difficulty finding inspirational people, you could try joining online communities or local organizations with folks who share your interests.

Negativity can also be contagious. So, it may be beneficial to avoid people who consistently discourage your creativity.

“Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put some sunglasses on.”

— Lady Gaga, American singer

8. Eliminating the pressure to be inspired

Inspiration naturally ebbs and flows. Consider acknowledging that you’re currently in an uninspired state and allowing yourself time for those brilliant thoughts to appear naturally.

It’s natural to feel uninspired at times or not know what inspires you. Try to leave judgment or guilt out of the process. If inspiration is shy at the moment, it might be a good time to focus on some practical tasks in the meantime.

“You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens.”

— Mandy Hale, New York Times best-selling author