The COVID-19 pandemic is a possibly biblical-scale human calamity that has wracked countries like never before. Unfortunately, it has also highlighted one particularly disturbing aspect of our communities and economies: they have been functioning on a razor's edge. The structure appears to be shining: a world of silver planes connecting glittering cities, an universe of soaring markets and industrial empires. But a few months into the coronavirus outbreak, everything is teetering, with planes grounded, cities silent, and one industry after another on the verge of collapse.
Our world, however gleaming it appeared to be, was not really solid. Our systems and society appear to be extremely vulnerable, shattering the assumptions of a strong and resilient order.
We have very little influence over our surroundings and the issues we face. However, there is always something we can do to mitigate the impact: we can improve our ability to deal with crises and adversity.
Resilience is the ability to draw on our inner strength to recover from failures and thrive in times of struggle or change. Resilience improves our mental state and our ability to endure and prosper in the face of adversity.
In every area, resilience is a crucial asset for modern leaders. Those who work to establish a healthy and just society have particular obstacles that often take a toll on their personal lives. You will be prone to pressures such as burnout, relationship breakdowns, or the death of a loved one if you lack resilience. You may feel attacked or harassed, or you may resort to harmful coping techniques like substance misuse.
While we all know that hard effort and luck play a big role in career success, the ability to persevere in the face of adversity should never be overlooked. It's all too easy to dismiss resilience as something you either have or don't have. It can, however, be constructed using a few basic procedures.
Resilience, on the other hand, is not a set quality. It's actually the outcome of a combination of "learnable" actions that work together to make you less stressed. We are all resilient in different ways, yet we can all improve our resilience. When we are engaged, encouraged, and inspired with and by others, we are significantly more resilient. We become stronger, happier, more confident—and more robust to challenges—when we form strong, positive relationships.
While resilience is an important trait for a good upbringing, people can also improve their resilience in middle age, when we need it the most. Midlife can present a variety of high-stress situations that prevent self-reflection and self-care. Some characteristics of middle age, such as mental maturity that allows for better emotion regulation, a more balanced viewpoint obtained from life's events, and concern for future generations, may provide older people an advantage over younger people when it comes to establishing resilience.
Whether or not you may be considered resilient is primarily determined by how you respond as your life develops. We will never know how strong you are if you are fortunate enough to never face adversity or major challenges. Resilience, or the lack thereof, can only be determined when you are confronted with obstacles, stress, and other environmental dangers.
Resilience will not make your issues disappear, but it will enable you to look past them. It will assist you in adapting to challenging conditions. You will still feel wrath, grief, and anguish when stress, hardship, or tragedy strikes, but you will be able to manage with it—both physically and intellectually.
As a result of their natural evolutionary inheritance, humans have an unparalleled potential for adaptation. They have an uncanny ability to change people's ways of life. This is why they have such a wide range of cultural and behavioral characteristics. Our basic human social, ecological, and behavioral adaptation has improved our ability to handle the immediate world, soften the effects of the unpredictable, and withstand novelty over time, all through an incredible ability to change the environment.
Adaptability is the only means to assure an organism's survival. The idea that human people are special because they possess the power, intellect, and determination to survive in the most advers situations does not hold up under investigation, since we have discovered that life not only survives, but thrives in situations that human beings could not possible endure.
What matters to us is how quickly we adjust to the changes we encounter. Rather than dreading change, we should endeavor to embrace it. People who are firmly steeped in their traditions are more prone to oppose change. Traditionalists are pessimists when it comes to the future and optimists when it comes to the past. Because it has been our nature, the urge to use tradition as a cloak for bias and conformity, accompanied by a resistance to adapt or expand, reveals itself fairly forcefully.
