Resiliency: Overcoming Your Own Odds

I have to admit, I’m an Olympics junky. It’s the stuff of great drama that gets me hooked. I love the personal stories of athletes testing their mettle. 

It’s the time when individuals are expected to take professional risks; to push their personal envelope, so to speak. No one tunes in to see athletes performing as if they were practicing back home.

Getting slammed can make anyone fearful of trying again. It’s the old saying about getting back into the saddle after a horse throws you. You don’t want to walk away feeling nervous about the experience; fear has a way of settling into your bones like a bad case of arthritis.

Setbacks teach us about ourselves and our willingness to try something different. Success can make us lazy, too comfortable 'in our groove'. Before long we find ourselves skiing the same path and working the same mogul, not willing to step outside what has now become our new comfort zone.

Setbacks are Resilient Teachers

• Resiliency serves as a reminder of our inner reserves.
• Resiliency stems from the process of healing and learning from the experience.
• Resiliency is the place where confidence and courage propel us to move forward. 

Unfortunately, we learn as children that our accomplishments and not our efforts get us recognized and rewarded. The unspoken message when you’re not the winner is that you’re the loser. This gets reinforced in school and, lo and behold, we take this stinking thinking into the workplace (with the work culture reinforcing it).

So, we stop taking risks that energize our brains, get us thinking differently, more creatively. We expect someone (a boss?) to give us permission to beat the odds.

The good news? You don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to think, act, and do different.   

It’s time companies re-engineer performance measurements that keep people inside their comfort zones. Innovative workplace cultures and adaptive knowledge workers depend on it.

What odds have you overcome recently? Do something different? Share your tips by clicking on the comments link at the end of the page. dm

© 2006 DA McCrorey

Comments

[Dee McCrorey]

OK, Barry, now I'm curious about your curling passion. I expect to see a post from you weaving your passion for coaching and curling...you're spot on regarding the art of resiliency as the common denominator for keeping the athletes in the game.

[beezee]

While the Olympics can be fabulous to watch - I'm now a curling fan, thank you very much - I think many people draw the wrong lesson from them by focusing more on the "perfection" (or lack thereof) of the Olympic performance, rather than marveling at the "resiliency" that got the Olympians there in the first place.