5 Things You Need to Know If You Want to Build Resilience

Powerful Ways to Find Your Inner Strength and Why It Matters

Neel Raman
8 min readAug 22, 2023

When you can build resilience, it will help you deal with life’s challenges, setbacks, and obstacles effectively.

Building resilience is essential for solving problems, bouncing back from adversity, and achieving success in life. However, resilience isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a skill you can develop with effort and commitment.

Learn five key things that will help you build resilience and achieve greater success in life.

1-Minute Summary Video

What is Resilience?

Resilience is the ability to adapt and bounce back from adversity or traumatic events. It’s not about never experiencing hardship, but about having the skills and mindset to overcome it.

It’s a skill that will help you navigate life’s challenges, adverse situations, and obstacles, and become stronger because of it.

Resilience allows you to face challenges or emotional pain with a sense of optimism and determination. It helps you to stay motivated and focused even when things get tough.

Resilience is not something you’re born with, but something you can develop it through practice and experience. It’s a skill that can be strengthened over time.

Resilience is a journey, not a destination. It requires ongoing effort to maintain, but the rewards are worth it. With resilience, you can face life’s challenges with confidence and courage.

Ultimately, resilience is about cultivating a sense of hope and optimism in the face of adversity. It’s about believing you can overcome obstacles, learn from setbacks, and emerge stronger on the other side.

build resilience

Why is It Important to Build Resilience?

The benefits of building resilience include:

  1. Deal with stress better, especially during uncertain or challenging times.
  2. Help you stay focused and stick with a task, even if it’s a difficult one.
  3. Develop emotional intelligence as you will better understand your own emotions, as well as those of others.
  4. Cope with difficult situations because you’re better equipped to handle negative emotions that arise from stressful events.
  5. Help you be more adaptive when faced with a challenging situation.
  6. Stay committed to pursue your dreams and achieve your goals.

Building resilience is essential for improving your ability to handle stress, cultivate positive emotions, and pursue your goals. With practice and effort, resilience is a skill that can be developed and strengthened, providing you with a valuable tool for living a fulfilling and successful life.

What are the Types of Resilience?

Resilience is not a one-size-fits-all skill. Depending on the circumstance you are dealing with, the type of resilience you need to develop may vary. Here are the types of resilience you can build.

1. Psychological resilience

This refers to the ability to cope with stress and adversity in a healthy and productive way. Resilience is not just about bouncing back from setbacks. It’s also about thriving in the face of challenges. People with strong psychological resilience have a strong sense of control, and are better able to maintain balance and perspective in their lives, even when faced with difficult situations.

2. Physical resilience

This refers to the ability to handle physical health challenges and recover from injuries or illnesses. It may involve taking care of your body through healthy eating, regular exercise, and getting enough sleep.

3. Emotional resilience

This involves managing difficult emotions and coping with stress and challenging experiences. This type of resilience is crucial when dealing with mental health issues or traumatic experiences. It can involve seeking support from a qualified professional or practicing mindfulness and meditation.

4. Social resilience

This refers to the capacity to deal with social challenges and form positive relationships. Building strong social networks and developing interpersonal skills can help you cope with life’s social challenges and have an optimistic outlook on life.

5. Cognitive resilience

This involves the ability to maintain a positive mindset and approach difficult situations with flexibility and creativity. It may involve developing problem-solving skills, adopting a positive self-talk and reframing techniques, and staying optimistic, even in times of crisis.

By recognizing and honing these different types of resilience, you can become better equipped to cope with a variety of challenges that life throws your way. A combination of these could be necessary to handle situations more effectively, depending on the experiences you’re facing.

It’s helpful to identify which type of resilience you need to focus on based on the challenges and experiences you’re dealing with.

5 Things to Know That Will Help You Build Resilience

Here are five things you need to know if you want to build resilience, so you can find your inner strength, bounce back from setbacks, and emerge stronger than ever.

1. Understand the biology of resilience

Having a basic understanding of how resilience functions in the body can help you find strategies for building it.

Resilience is not just a mental trait, it’s also a physical and physiological response in the brain and nervous system. Certain brain areas, such as the prefrontal cortex, are activated during stressful situations. Those with greater resilience often respond with less cortisol and adrenaline levels, which means they deal with those situations better.

Activities such as exercise, breathing techniques, or yoga can help reduce the physical effects of stress and foster a resilient mindset.

2. Focus on what you can control

When things don’t go according to plan or when faced with negative situations, it’s easy to get caught up in worries and concerns about things outside of your control.

Instead, focusing on what you can control can help reduce stress and anxiety and develop resilience. Identify the things you have control over, which can simply be your thoughts, feelings, reactions, or what you say.

By focusing on those elements, and taking action to make progress, even if incremental, you’ll be able to develop greater resilience.

3. Cultivate a growth mindset

A growth mindset is the belief you can learn and improve your abilities over time. People with this mindset see failures as opportunities for growth rather than threats to their self-worth.

By cultivating a growth mindset, you’ll be better equipped to handle adversities, failures, and setbacks in a constructive way.

Strategies such as reframing negative thoughts into positive ones, making incremental progress, and reflecting on lessons learned can help you develop a growth mindset.

4. Learn how to bounce back from setbacks

Everyone experiences setbacks and failures. However, how you respond to those setbacks has a significant impact on your level of resilience.

To develop resilience, it’s important to learn how to bounce back from setbacks. That includes focusing on the lessons you can learn and the growth opportunities in a situation rather than dwelling on your mistakes.

Reflection, self-compassion, and learning from your mistakes can turn your failures into valuable lessons.

5. Practice self-care and build a support system

Your overall well-being is essential for building resilience. Therefore it’s important to prioritize self-care and build a support system.

This can include exercise, meditation, spending time with loved ones, and seeking professional support when needed. Remember to take care of your physical and emotional well-being as well as your mental health.

It may mean stepping back and taking time to pause as you gain the energy, focus, or perspective to move forward.

By incorporating these five things into your daily routine, you can better handle life’s challenges with grace and grit. These strategies work in complementary ways to foster resilience so they could be seen as a whole for effective results.

How to Know If You Have Resilience

Here are signs you have resilience:

  1. You have a positive outlook. Resilient people have a positive outlook on life. They see challenges as opportunities for growth and believe they can overcome adversity.
  2. You have supportive relationships. Having a support system can help you develop greater resilience. Resilient people have trusted loved ones they can turn to for emotional support in times of need.
  3. You can solve problems. Resilient people can approach problems with a clear mind and find effective solutions. They’re not afraid to take risks and try new things.
  4. You’re adaptable to change. Resilient people adapt to change quickly and effectively. They can adjust their approach when things don’t go according to plan and find alternative solutions.
  5. You stay calm under pressure. Resilient people are not easily overwhelmed by stress. They maintain a sense of calm and perspective even in the face of adversity.

Resilience is not a fixed trait, but a skill that can be learned and improved over time with practice and persistence.

Final Thoughts

Building resilience is a critical skill that can help you in many aspects of your daily life. Resilience is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. It may not be easy, but is achievable.

When you build resilience, you improve your chances of utilizing more of your potential for greater success and happiness in life.

Action Step: Identify an area of your life you want to build resilience and develop a plan to work on it. You can start by focusing on what you can control and letting go of what you can’t.

Question: What is another thing you need to know if you want to build resilience?

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Neel Raman

If you’re a leader that wants your team to perform better, get a free copy of my bestselling book, “Building High-Performing Teams” here: http://bit.ly/2rS1T4F