Resilience is, among others, one of the buzzwords of the last couple of years, together with diversity and emotional intelligence.
As if just using the word, again and again, would help to build some extra resilience with no further efforts.
Still, resilience is the product of how we react to difficult and even extreme situations, the ones that can literally make or break us, just like the present pandemic.
Are we going to survive, to surrender, or to thrive and to grow because of how we managed something painful, unpleasant, and definitely stressful?
While thinking about this, we should not make the mistake to consider resilience as a "new" concept, something hip and trendy only related to modern times.
One of my favorite ways of looking at resilience is actually a moral maxim over 2,000 years old, since it was first collected by the Latin writer Publilius Syrus (fl. 85–43 BC):
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
(In tranquillo esse quisque gubernator potest)
We could translate this sentence as an invite to keep calm and stay strong in front of adversity, uncertainty, and risk, as a way to show our true colors and that we have true grit when it is really necessary.
Instead of pretending to be resilient or having true grit, challenges of every kind give us a chance to show, ourselves and others, what we are actually made of.
Coaching question of the day:
"Where can you make the most of your true grit?"
As if just using the word, again and again, would help to build some extra resilience with no further efforts.
Still, resilience is the product of how we react to difficult and even extreme situations, the ones that can literally make or break us, just like the present pandemic.
Are we going to survive, to surrender, or to thrive and to grow because of how we managed something painful, unpleasant, and definitely stressful?
[Like in that old movie...
When the goin' gets tough... The tough get goin'!
with some true grit]
While thinking about this, we should not make the mistake to consider resilience as a "new" concept, something hip and trendy only related to modern times.
One of my favorite ways of looking at resilience is actually a moral maxim over 2,000 years old, since it was first collected by the Latin writer Publilius Syrus (fl. 85–43 BC):
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
(In tranquillo esse quisque gubernator potest)
We could translate this sentence as an invite to keep calm and stay strong in front of adversity, uncertainty, and risk, as a way to show our true colors and that we have true grit when it is really necessary.
Instead of pretending to be resilient or having true grit, challenges of every kind give us a chance to show, ourselves and others, what we are actually made of.
Coaching question of the day:
"Where can you make the most of your true grit?"
Tags: Coaching question, Self-coaching, Self-awareness, Self-reflection, Resilience, Quotes, Facing extreme situations
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