As I have gotten older, I want more and more time to think, gather my thoughts, make sense of the world, and hopefully garner some wisdom.
Yeah, I keep on waiting. That hasn’t happened in a long time even with multiple efforts to carve that time out and work it into my schedule. The necessities of work, family, and Netflix binging push out any attempt otherwise. Then something happened that I would like to share with you.
I focused on the now. I paid attention.
Much is being discussed about resilience these days. You see the concept explored more and more in regard to leadership and self-improvement strategies. Resilience can be defined as our ability to meet life’s demands with our current resources. When our resources are high (plenty of sleep, low stress, healthy) we can meet life’s demands fairly easily. When our resources are depleted, you can imagine how tough it is. Many of us live that way and then get caught up worrying about the future and reliving the past. The result is stress. And it is killing us slowly, but surely. Don’t believe me? Ask your doctor. She will tell you.
Resilience is much like a muscle. You have to train it, develop it, use it in order for it to be healthy and grow.
One of the simplest ways to practice resilience is to pay attention. Stop what you are doing, focus on your breathing, and see what is happening right at that moment. When a thought comes across your mind (which it will) notice it and let it slide on by. Return to paying attention to what is going on right now, in front of you, at that second. What a novel idea.
We can do that often. Even now, when time itself seems to be in short supply. No need to schedule it…just pause and enjoy a thought. I believe that this will help us be better leaders if only that we are role modeling self-care and stopping the “glorification of busy” which seems to have taken over much of our daily lives.
As leaders, we need to find the space to think, focus, plan, and breathe. Resilience is a skill we can cultivate which has a direct impact on our effectiveness in bringing about those moments that make a true impact.
Best of luck in your search for those moments.
