Resilience In Recession Tip #1 - Start With The Basics

When you boil it down to its essence, Resilience is a lot like the Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

When times are good and our resilience levels are high, most of us are pretty good at coming to peace with things that are out of our control, and at jumping on things that we can do something about. The problem is that often, especially during stressful and uncertain times, we’re not so good at figuring out what’s changeable and what’s not. We wind up beating our heads against problems that are largely out of our control – like the job market, or our company’s recent merger. And we walk away from problems that look unsolvable, when in fact they’re not. So, it’s the wisdom to know the difference that we need to focus on.

If you attended an Adaptiv Resilience Training workshop, you know that we spent hours teaching you skills to help you think more accurately about the challenges and opportunities you’re facing, in order to put your limited resources to the best possible use and get the best outcomes. For now, we just want to remind you to think carefully about whether or not you can really impact a given situation before you either dive into it or run the other way.

Here’s a quick story we received that helps to illustrate our point:

Dear Adaptiv,

It can be overwhelming constantly hearing all of the news about the bad economy. It is easy to feel powerless. I combat those feelings by focusing on what I can control in my own life and with my own budget. I accomplish this primarily by paying down credit card and other debt. Every time I get a little extra money, regardless of how small the amount, I pay a debt instead of spending the cash. The amount paid down adds up, my debt decreases, I feel like I’ve accomplished something and I feel back in control. A side benefit is that the news feels less stressful to me.

This person chose to take control over just one aspect of his life – credit card debt – but the resilience benefits went well beyond his financial situation.

If you have a story about how living the Serenity Prayer has helped you boost your resilience, we’d love to hear about it! Just comment here.