In this four-part discussion
on mental resilience, we will briefly touch the surface of this topic. Our purpose here is to provide solid access
points from which the reader can contemplate their understanding of and execute
their path to sustainable mental resilience.
In this first installment, we will generally look into a few general
questions:
What does it mean to have Mental Resilience?
Why is Mental Resilience important?
How do I develop sustainable Mental Resilience?
What Is Mental Resilience?
Considering terminology,
resilience is a functioning word for flexibility, elasticity, and toughness,
and serves as an improvement over the three as its definition implies all of
the above and is not singularly exclusive.
Mental agility and objectiveness is important, if not imperative, to
long-term success and happiness. The
levels of failure and disappointments we will endure during a lifetime are less
remarkable in quantity than they are for defining how we choose to respond to each
of them.
Countless entries empirical
and written evidence as well as allegorical stories speak of remarkable feats
made by individuals over the course of time describing the degree of focus
required to succeed, or be successful, at given tasks. This degree of focus is taken with our
ability to positively face adversity, grow from its experience, and apply our
own growth knowledge to future situations is mental resilience.
What Does It Mean To Have Mental Resilience?
Having mental resilience
means that we have prepared ourselves to learn from every experience and not
allow any one experience to control us or our future experiences. While mental resilience is not complicated, it
is very hard to maintain with consistence.
It is the ability to develop positive constructs, while discarding the
negatives (but learning from them) consistently.
Having healthy mental
resilience includes knowing that sometimes we will not exercise positive mental
resilience in every experience but are flexible enough to know this about
ourselves.
Why Is Mental Resilience Important?
Human beings are both linear and spatial creatures. We build our fact sets one after
another. We then spatially refer to
various fact sets and apply them to other experiences thus allowing us to
define our understanding in terms of our history. If we continue to develop negative stereotypes,
myths, or foster mis-/dis-understanding, we are destined to repeat various
cycles of behavior and thought. Having
mental resilience allows the ability to elastically accept failure as a
positive and not have to repeat the negative loops. When we are able to control the projections
of our minds, we are exercising mental resilience.
As failure is an important part of life’s cycles, it is
important that we understand how to not live
in the failure but rather live in the
experience of how that failure helps us today and will in the future.
How Do I Develop Sustainable Mental Resilience?
Proper understanding and
preparation are the primary control factors in consistent execution of anything. Controllables are those things everyone can
improve upon to increase their mental resilience. It is important to note here that everyone can improve their mental
resilience. It is not our experience
that otherwise higher or lower Intelligence Quotas (IQs) have increased or
decreased mental resilience. What may be
taken into account by this measure may be the more predictably general
responses at given levels of failures and disappointments. Mental resilience does have neurological fact
sets, but again, here, we are only focusing on controllables.
A key to understanding how to become mentally resilient is
the degree of preparation. Being prepared
is mental resilience. Since various levels of failures and
disappointments occur largely against our greater desires, being prepared for
them is paramount to overcoming them in a healthy, swift manner, and without
creating inner emotional turmoil. [It
should be mentioned here that all decisions we make are internalized by our own
definitions, understandings, heuristics, and psychological constructs. I.e., two people of relative age, temperament,
education, etc., while statistically employing similar characteristics, are
likely to internalize resolution differently.]
In the argument, mental resilience as a conclusion relies on
the undeniable premise of preparation. E.g.:
- An applicable maxim: Y = F(X)
- ‘Y equals a function of X.’
- If the value of Y is dependent upon the value of X and changes as the value of X changes, allow Y to be healthy mental resilience and X to be preparation.
- Read: Mental resilience is a function of preparation.
A note worth considering
is that preparation, in terms of mental resilience, is a uniquely solitary and
subjective construct that only the individual has control over. Mental resilience demands honest preparation. While I concur that the inclusion of subjective
honesty clouds the objective nature of the discussion, it is nonetheless important. Human beings define honesty in terms that are
individually understood, as they relate and co-exist with societal definitions
and norms. Accepting this as plausibly true,
how often have we failed or been disappointed at some level because of our own inadequate inputs during
preparation? Yes, we may have
acknowledged a different response to the outcome but when alone and with our
thoughts we privately acknowledge to ourselves we simply did not put forth the
requisite effort needed for a more successful outcome.
True preparation occurs
in three steps. Although there are
serially more steps, these basic cornerstones are the foundation. They are: clarity of purpose; understanding
the question; and, positive execution.
This CUP method ensures adequate preparation.
In upcoming discussions about mental resilience we will:
highlight the CUP method in language that is applicable; discuss the power of
making good choices; and, discuss how to overcome mental ‘personal objections’
that derail us from being mentally resilient.
Follow-up Action Item
What self-defeating thoughts keep you from delivering your
best? Make a list of 3 things (real or
imagined) that are holding you back from delivering your best. List each “Personal Objection” out and beside
each write down specifically how it holds you back. Then, write down what it would feel like if this no longer held you
back. The idea here is write these out
on a single index card (if possible), or a piece of paper (even stored inside
your smart phone or other device you keep with you most of the time) that you
can keep with you at all times and refer to it whenever you encounter a
personal objection, remind yourself what it would feel like to successfully
overcome the objection and execute your purpose points. [We will refer to this in later discussions.]
Takeaway
Mental resilience is a
subjective frame of mind that is unique to each person; however, there are
positive execution constructs that everyone can follow, adapt to, and
re-engineer to their own needs.
Delivering Your Best
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