Diving into uncertainty and overcoming builds resilience.  Putting yourself in situations where you lack control, confidence, and strength is truly an act of courage.  While these situations might be scary and intimidating, your mental strength and resilience will become stronger when you work through challenging situations, you persevere through difficult problems, and you live through and overcome hard times. 

Getting Stronger Requires Hard Work

You are not born fully resilient and mentally strong.  They are traits that are grown and developed.  You are not gifted with large amounts of resilience, you become resilient with practice. 

Your muscles don’t get stronger unless you lift heavy weights.  The same is true regarding your mental strength and resilience.  You have to go through tough times to get tougher.  You just can’t wish for strength and toughness.  You have to earn it.  You have to go get it.  You have to work hard for it. 

Hard Times are Inevitable in Life

How often have to you said or heard someone say, “I just want to be happy”?  Who doesn’t? 

While most of us desire and strive for more happiness, struggling is also a part of our human life.  Hard times are inevitable.  There is no human that escapes challenges, difficulties, or struggle.  It’s part of our human experience.  You can’t avoid it.

Click here to read more about how humans are unified by struggle.

Embrace the Struggle

When you are in moments or times of struggle, difficulty, or challenge, it’s common to resist it, avoid it, deny it, or even “fight with it.”  It’s hard not to because we simply don’t like the reality of life that exists during those times.  However, if you fight with reality, you’ll never win.

Instead, try to welcome the struggle as part of your human life.  You don’t have to like it.  You don’t have to enjoy it.  But, you can grow from it.  Knowing and accepting that hard times and struggling are part of our human experience may make the situation ever-so-slightly easier. 

Embracing or welcoming the struggle that exists while realizing that you have the opportunity to learn something, grow in mental strength, and build your resilience will empower you to push forward and through whatever the situation is.

Perseverance is a Requirement in Becoming More Resilient

The “pushing through” part is perseverance.  It is pushing forward despite the situation.  It’s pushing forward despite what you think or feel.  It’s simply pushing forward despite…. 

Practicing perseverance is not giving up.  It is one of the great tools used in becoming more resilient and growing in mental strength. 

Adaptability and Flexibility are Key to Resilience

Imagine yourself bending a stick but not all the way to it’s breaking point.  Just give it a good bend.  If you release the bend, it goes back to it’s shape.  It’s doesn’t stay bent.  You may have changed it’s shape slightly off of it’s original shape but it isn’t permanently bent.

This is how we are, or need to be, in our most resilient state.  We need to bend without breaking.  We need to bend out of our most comfortable, natural state in order to accommodate the situation.  We need to be flexible or pliable.  We need to be dynamic and have plasticity. 

Being able to adapt means we’re able to suit new, changed, or challenging conditions.  That doesn’t mean it won’t be hard, but simply knowing you can adapt will give you confidence to face whatever situation is in front of you. 

Be Willing and Anti-Rigid

A very rigid stick won’t bend very much, will it?  If bendability is required for resilience, then being firm and rigid is likely to make the situation more difficult.  If you can flex and be willing to flex, you are anti-rigid, which will likely help you move forward through adversity. 

Having the awareness of your state and situation is critical to an easier, more resilient path.  Practicing deliberate resilience and combining it with self-awareness drastically increases your resiliency. 

Thrive Despite Adversity

In the face of uncertainty, being resilient is a necessity.  The good news is that it is a skill that can be developed and strengthened.  You can embrace the unknown, accept the challenges, and grow stronger through adversity. As you navigate through life’s ups and downs, it’s important to remember that resilience isn’t innate.  It is cultivated through perseverance, adaptability, and a willingness to embrace the struggle.

So, as you journey forward, remember that resilience isn’t about avoiding hardships but about facing them head-on. It’s about bending without breaking, being flexible in the face of change, and remaining anti-rigid in your approach to life’s challenges. And through it all, let self-awareness guide you, knowing that deliberate resilience is the key to weathering any storm that comes your way.

Keep pushing forward, keep adapting, and keep growing stronger with each obstacle you overcome. In the end, it’s not about avoiding the uncertainties of life but about thriving in spite of them.