4 Basic Ways to Bounce Back from Embarrassing Mistakes and ‘Failures’ (Resilience)

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https://youtu.be/BUXj0v8MoI8

Why is resilience important ? Let’s face it, we can’t avoid certain stressful events from happening.

At times we will make mistakes and fail at something. This is normal and part of life.

For some of us, we brush away challenges and failures very easily. For the rest of us, setbacks make us feel depressed and we give up.

 

So how do we be more resilient?

 

When I was a school counsellor, I noticed a few key factors which set strong students apart from the not-so-strong ones.

Firstly, strong-minded people practise reframing. How do we reframe? Ask yourself after a setback: ‘What do I learn from this setback?’. ‘What will I continue to do or not do after this experience?’ ‘How can I be a better, stronger person after this?’

 

Secondly, gain perspective. On a Scale of 1 – 10, how would you rate this unpleasant experience? How will you feel about this 1 year from now? Will this event still matter 1 year from now? There will be some of us who will worry what other people think of us and our ‘failures’. Well guess what. Other people are too busy living their lives to think extensively about you. So don’t let your past mistakes haunt you till today.

 

Thirdly, recall your past successes. You have had many successes – big and small – in the past. Recall them to build your esteem. Ask yourself to remember a time when you had to cope with a difficult situation. What helped you to overcome that challenge? If you could overcome your fears and setbacks in the past, you can overcome this.

 

Lastly and fourthly, lighten up and see the humour in setbacks and mistakes. Even the most successful person you know has made mistakes. In fact, successful people are likely to make more mistakes than the average person. They learn and grow very fast with every mistake they made.

 

As you can see, building resilience takes practise and takes time. It does not happen overnight.

I hope these 4 resilience tips are useful to you.

Reframe your thoughts, get perspective, recall your past successes and see humour in your situations.

See you and have a good week.