This week we’re looking at another critical skill that has been much needed of late: Resiliency.
We define resiliency as quickly recovering from adversity. It is the skill of having thick skin. Being able to accept defeat, failure or rejection and letting it roll off your back so that you can get back to it. Resiliency doesn’t mean that you don’t fear rejection or failure, it means that you’re willing to accept that it happens in life, to learn from it, and to not let it derail your goals or objectives. It is probably the number one skill that has been helping people persevere through these uncertain times.
Those that are skilled in Resiliency expect to hit a few bumps along the road. They know that the path to success is not always a smooth one, but they are willing to keep at it until they reach their objective. They’re willing to keep trying again and again. They aren’t worried about the timeline, they are worried about meeting their goal and they have confidence that they will meet it eventually. Setbacks and obstacles aren’t major events for those skilled in Resiliency, they are part of everyday life. They don’t dwell on mistakes or missteps, but instead take them in stride and use their new knowledge to pivot to a new strategy.
Resiliency is an especially important skill to have as an entrepreneur during a crisis. Owning and operating your own business can throw you plenty of curveballs just during normal operations, but a crisis brings with it a whole new set of challenges. And you have to be ready to roll with the punches. Sometimes your best laid plans will have to be scrapped at the last minute, but if you are resilient you will try again with a new, stronger idea. A resilient entrepreneur will find a way to stay afloat in the new abnormal. They’ll be ready to adapt to whatever health and safety guidelines are created and they won’t be tied down to a singular way of doing business. They’ll try out new ideas and approaches until they find one that is sustainable.
If you’d like to start developing your Resiliency, you can work to view setbacks as lessons instead of failures. Don’t dwell on everything that went wrong, instead try to glean as much wisdom as you can from the failure. What did you learn that will help you succeed next time? You will need a mindset shift for this to work. You can no longer let that failure define you. You have to view it simply as a momentary set back that is setting you up for future success. Don’t let yourself wallow in self-pity, get back out there and start working on your next project using the lessons you learned.
Being able to tap into your resiliency may be the biggest factor that will help you get out of this pandemic with your business intact. It may be a rough ride, but if you can be resilient, you will make it to the other side.
