Talking Resilience

Resilience is an ability to push on despite obstacles or failures. It is a quality tough to identify unless a person has faced hardships and failures. The real stars shine only when the going gets tough. That brings one back to the famous proverb ‘When the going gets tough the tough get going’, made famous in that beautiful song by Billy Ocean. 

The first phase in building resilience for soldiers is physical when you push beyond the comfort level of physical strength and endurance, it builds mental resilience as one pushes boundaries. Once you see physically tougher give up and the seemingly soft push on, you understand there is more to resilience than just muscles. Mental and emotional resilience is the final frontier. The ability to build Zen-like or Buddha-like ability to face the challenges modern world presents. Organizations and families or any social structure need people with resilience to tide over the tough times. 


The reading that got me to this topic was from ‘Most and More’ by Mahatria Ra. I reproduce the extract.

“Whether[1] something is a stepping stone or a stumbling block depends on how you use it. The sages who gave us the Upanishads say ‘Charaiveti, Charaiveti’. Buddha used to end all his discourses saying, ‘Charaiveti, Charaiveti’ meaning, ‘Go on. Go on. Do not halt. Do not stagnate. Endeavor continuously. Don’t stop. Rest not. Go on. Keep going on. Charaiveti, Charaiveti. Seek most and more… settle for nothing less than most and more…”

Another interesting view[2] of Professor Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, is about leaders with resilience having capability to admit own weak areas and the desire on work on them, ideally with even your subordinates so that they understand what you are fighting to improve in yourself. The best way to improve resilience is by saying ‘I am struggling every single day and I am still getting through less than perfect’”. To think about it there may not be another worthwhile endeavor than building individual and society resilience.

The topic also brings to mind the lines of the times If by Rudyard Kipling

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,”

Happy building resilience. 

Roopesh Mehta
24 Mar 2019

[1] Page 157, ‘Most and More’ by Mahatria Ra
[2] 11:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXGm5S5mAaU

Comments

  1. puneetwahiMarch 24, 2019 at 7:31 PM

    As usual... well done! Read https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-book/ ...it resonates well with both what you are writing about as well as our background and training!!

    ReplyDelete

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