Month: August 2024 Page 1 of 2

 “Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.”  Jamais Cascio.

I have been watching lots of documentaries recently featuring top level sports teams. I have watched programmes behind the scenes of the England and Australia cricket teams during last year’s Ashes contest, also programmes featuring Newcastle and Burnley football clubs.

One of the things that struck me from watching these programmes, was how resilient sports people have to be to cope with changing fortunes and the highs and lows of elite sport. You can learn a lot from these programmes about coping mechanisms that can be applied to your own life.

The ability to cope with relentless change and to be flexible in our thinking are key to helping us to thrive in today’s demanding world. The capacity to quickly recover from difficulties, set-backs, challenges and disappointments is a great quality to possess.

It may be that the ability to adapt and bounce back is stronger in some people than others. However, with focus and attention you can develop your resilience just as you can build up muscles through regular exercise. I believe that having great resilience and the capability to find extra reserves of energy when required are vital to help people to flourish and thrive.

Certain conditions in people’s lives help them to be resilient. These include having a few people to talk to without feeling judged and also receiving regular encouragement from others.

Maintaining good health and physical condition with regular exercise, sufficient sleep and a healthy diet play an important role. Being involved in community projects, charitable causes, staying optimistic and expecting things to work out for the best also help.

Here are some ideas to develop resilience:

Goal setting
Having personal goals, even small every day ones help you to look towards the future with optimism and provide a sense of accomplishment once completed. Goals you’ve achieved in the past are a strong reference point in the future when you’re pursuing something and the going gets tough.

Acceptance and positive expectations
Accept that you are unable to change the past and focus your energy on the present moment, your growth and development. Have positive expectations of success and create a mechanism to review your progress. Maintain a positive attitude and optimistic outlook.

Make room in your life for laughter and fun
The ability to maintain a sense of humour and to see the funny side of a situation when facing a challenge is a great coping mechanism. It helps to relieve stress and keep your spirits up.

Remember how you conquered previous challenges
When you face a fresh challenge remind yourself how you conquered a previous challenge and the learnings that you took from the experience. It’s good to have clarity about strategies that helped you cope with previous hardship.

The importance of self-care
Take care of your needs and feelings both physically and emotionally. Engage in hobbies and pastimes that you really enjoy and contribute positively to your overall wellbeing. Get sufficient sleep each night and exercise daily.

Maintain a journal
This helps to externalise your feelings and provides a sense of clarity and perspective. It quite often allows you to view situations in a different way and conjures up new perspectives for you to consider. It can help you to create some new ideas, approaches and action plans that you can practically apply.

This week, why not take a few moments out to reflect. Consider what action you can take to develop your resilience.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius.

Over the years my appreciation of some time for reflection has grown. I’ve found that it has helped me to reduce the chatter in a busy mind. It’s contributed to a greater feeling of calmness. I find that it’s a great way to draw breath and evaluate things

Setting aside a specific time to reflect is a great habit to develop. You can enhance the benefit of this quiet time by combining it with asking yourself some powerful questions. Your responses can be recorded in a notebook or journal for future reference.

Asking yourself some questions will allow you to take stock, to review where you are in life at the present time and will help you to get clarity on where you want to be. Questions will allow you to straddle the space between your head and heart (i.e. your emotion and intellect) and inform the action steps to take.

Marilee Adams wrote about the power of questions in her book with a great title “Change Your Questions, Change Your Life.” In the book she introduces the concept of question thinking, an easy-to-use system for transforming thinking, action and results. Marilee claims that with new perspectives and alternatives, you can take powerful, practical steps to transform your work, relationships and life.

An excellent way to get to know yourself better and increase your self-awareness is to ask yourself some powerful questions. This will enable you to delve more deeply into who you really are. If you ask the right questions, you can gain valuable insights and clarity into what you truly wish to achieve and experience in life.

I would recommend making personal reflection a daily habit. You will reap many benefits and rewards from just 10 minutes of reflection. I suggest you look to do this at the same time each day to help embed it as a habit. If you find it challenging to sit and reflect, you may benefit from combining reflection with exercise such as walking, cycling or running.

Regular reflection will help you to learn from mistakes and help them to become valuable lessons rather than something to feel upset about. It provides the brain an opportunity to pause and relax amidst the chaos of life. It will also help with your creativity and generate new ideas.

Sorting through your observations and experiences helps to create greater meaning. Having this meaning helps to inform your future actions and will have a positive influence on your mindset.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed with your workload or the projects you’re involved with, it will enable you to get things into better perspective.  This will have a positive effect on your happiness and reduce stress levels.

Author Tim Ferriss made an interesting observation about a benefit of reflection. He said: “It is important that you pay as much attention to appreciation as you do to achievement. Achievement without reflection on what you have and the gratitude for that is worthless.”

If you’re unable to make it part of your daily routine, you may want to introduce a weekly reflection, where you review what has happened and record any insights.

Your weekly review could include answering these questions:

• What has worked well this week?
• What has been a challenge this week?
• What have been my key insights and lessons?
• What can I be grateful for this week?

 
This week, why not pause for a few moments and consider what action you can take to carve out more time for reflection.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential, these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” Confucius.

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Paris Olympic Games which concluded last night. There have been some stunning performances and some beautiful scenery on show at some of the outdoor events.

It has been inspiring to watch athletes who have trained and prepared so hard for a long period of time compete for a gold, silver or bronze medal. There were moments of sheer joy as well as heartbreak and disappointment for some. The full range of emotions were on display during the games and there were plenty of interesting stories about how people had got to where they are today.

It has been another great games for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We finished seventh in the medal tables with a total of 65 medals (14 gold, 22 silver and 29 bronze). The Gold medal win for Great Britain and Northern Ireland that I enjoyed watching the most was 19-year-old Toby Roberts. He won the boulder and lead event in speed climbing. Toby decided at age 12 that he wanted to take part in this event and devised a plan with his dad to achieve this goal. His dad actually erected a climbing wall in the family garden for Toby to practice on.

My wish is that these games inspire a new crop of youngsters to get involved and committed to a sport. There are many qualities and skills to be developed from involvement in individual or team sports and the life skills gained can be used in both personal and professional lives.

I believe that the Olympics provided some insights for us all about personal development, goal achievement and fulfilment of potential.

Here are a few thoughts on the subject: –

• We are given countless examples of what’s possible with commitment, hard work, discipline and a determination to succeed.
• Confidence and positive mindset have a big role to play in goal achievement.
• The input of a coach helps maintain focus, develop performance and the commitment to being the best you can be.
• To achieve anything, sometimes you need to be able to perform under pressure, be prepared to continuously improve and learn from setbacks and mistakes.
• Anything is possible if you are doing what you love with passion. We do best what we enjoy and feel passionate about.
• Olympians focus on the things that they can control (control the controllables) and look for and apply marginal gains to give them the edge over their competitors.
• There are fine margins in performance and results. Winning and losing can come down to the fraction of a second or a few millimetres.
• Don’t quit too soon, keep going until the end of the race. It isn’t over until the very end. Some people save their best performance until last and the medal can be won with the last throw, jump or in the final few metres or seconds of a race or contest.
• Some of the best athletes have been tested by challenges to reveal hidden strengths and potential to them. This kind of test helps to teach people how to cope with and bounce back from disappointment and adversity. It helps develop mental toughness and resilience.
• Whatever you do in life, do it with enthusiasm, passion and commitment. Set your sights high, apply yourself and go for it.

This week, why not take a few moments out to reflect and think about what actions you can take to help achieve a goal that you have. If you haven’t taken any action yet towards achieving the goal, what will be your first step and when will you do this?

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk