Enhance Resilience
What is "resilience?"
Resilience is the ability to "bounce back"—not just in your mental stamina to recover from stress but also in your ability to recover from failure.
Resilience requires you to respond to challenges using a combination of physical, mental, and logical means in order to restore readiness and reengage.
The Five Dimensions of Resilience
A modified variation of the U.S. Army's approach to R2, we recognize that there are five pillars in which resilience depends upon:
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Physical
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Emotional
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Social
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Ethical
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Team-Oriented
Physical Resilience
Having the ability to "bounce back" physically is critical to ensuring that you will have the capability of being able to stress and physical challenges. Your stamina will depend on how much sleep you get, how well you eat—how prepared your body is to endure the actual physical needs of adapting to a difficult environment. Regular exercise is also a major component to your physical stability as it is important that your body does not become overstressed or overexerted when conducting physical tasks.
Emotional Resilience
Emotions get in the way of your mind's ability to rationally and logically process information. It is imperative that you remember to avoid taking conflicts as personal, particularly in your early phases of leadership when you make mistakes and receive some pretty harsh feedback at times. Do not just focus on the errors that you make but just as equally how you have recovered from those errors. This "trains" your mind to be able to handle tougher situations while being able to analytically think through the challenges that you face.
Social Resilience
We are often faced with testing our social resilience when we have interpersonal relationships that struggle, such as fighting with a friend or family, or breaking up from a romantic relationship. It is important to recognize when you are going through a challenging personal period, and it is especially pertinent to notice when you are starting to isolate yourself from others. Remember that there are always people who are available to lean on and seek consultation when times get tough. Do not let yourself be distanced by a negative attitude. Building and maintaining interpersonal relationships is difficult, but it will create a network that you can fall back on for guidance and comfort.
Ethical Resilience
When times get tough, it can become easy to make poor decisions that can compound (build upon one another), making matters even worse that they were before. In times of challenge, reflect back on your values—including CAP's Core Values—and consider where you may be falling short. Continue to attempt to assess the situation around you and make decisions that not only lead you on a path to success but also lead others along the same path. Do not sight on what is right.
Click here for a collection of CAP's Character programming to support the Core Values curriculum.
Team-Oriented Resilience
By building and maintaining healthy relationships with your colleagues and peers, you can help the group collectively negotiate challenges and come to team-oriented conclusions. It is very likely that you are not the only one on the team who has questions or feels isolated at times. By stepping up and demonstrating your own style of leadership, you can help lead others to success while other accomplishing your own personal goals. This is your opportunity to study up and become knowledgeable about subject matter that can directly impact your team. Make yourself a resource that others can seek for guidance.
