Cultivate Mental Resilience

Life can be challenging and the fact is that you will face numerous problems and challenges. Acknowledging this simple fact is the first step in becoming a well-prepared steward. If your desire is to be a well-prepared and diligent steward then you must build the right mental strategies that will enable you to face life's challenges with strength and courage. In other words, you need to build mental resilience.

"Resilience is the human capacity to meet adversity, setbacks and trauma, and then recover from them in order to live life fully. Resilient leaders have the ability to sustain their energy level under pressure, to cope with disruptive changes and adapt. They bounce back from setbacks. They also overcome major difficulties without engaging in dysfunctional behaviour or harming others." - IMD.org

Over the years, I have had to build my own mental resilience. This inner strength has allowed me to face challenges and deal with problems both at home and work. Below are the strategies that have helped me build up my mental resilience and hopefully they can help you take the first step in building yours.

1. Learn from experience. Think of how you’ve coped with hardships in the past. Consider the skills and strategies that helped you through difficult times and list those down so you can refer back to them when a novel challenge appears. We sometimes must remind ourselves of the battles we have won and how we won so we can face future battles with courage.

2. Remain hopeful. A healthy “cup half full” mindset will allow you to show up positively despite the challenges you are experiencing. It is important to remember that you can’t change the past, but you can always look toward the future. So even if some of the problems you dealt with in your past where your own doing, you can always learn from your own mistakes and use those lessons to build your stamina.

3. Be proactive. Don’t ignore your problems. Instead, figure out what needs to be done, make a plan and take action. Although it can take time to recover from a major setback, traumatic event or loss, know that your situation can improve if you work at it.

4. Get connected. Building strong, positive relationships with loved ones and friends that can provide you with needed support, guidance and acceptance in good and bad times at work. These relationships also act as reminder that there is life outside of the challenges you might experience at work and will keep you grounded when you most need it. Remember you do not need a large circle of support, a few solid people in your corner is all you need to keep going.

5. Take care of yourself. Participate in activities and hobbies you enjoy. Include physical activity in your daily routine. Get plenty of sleep and create consistent bedtime rituals. Eat a healthy diet. Practice stress management and relaxation techniques. It is very important that you have a life outside of work that allows you to destress and see the bigger picture. Your work is only one aspect of who you are so do not neglect the rest of your being.

6. Read the Bible, pray and fast regularly. The Lord must be the anchor of your life. Cultivate your relationship with Him. Invest in times of prayer, reading the Word and fasting. These investments pay off when challenges arise. When the storms and winds of life arise, the solid foundation you have built in God will steady you and the Holy Spirit will calm you and help you navigate the season you are in. Of all the tips, this is the most important one. Once your foundation is sure, then it becomes easier to build all the other strategies on top of this.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind".

2 Timothy 1:7

FN

"In Him we live & breathe & have our being"