I had many aha moments in the past two years. Some came with a lot of pain and disillusionment; others were pure joy.
We all default to worrying and doubting in times of uncertainty. But the good resulting from my current season of growth is that I learned to challenge all my theories and thoughts – also those I had and have of my abilities.
I discovered that many of my beliefs were wrong. Like many, I thought being strong and resilient meant being principled, rigid and unbending. Is that not the picture in our heads of all the dynamic leaders we look up to?
Resilience is such a powerful and bouncy word. It reminds me of a ball that bounces back with the same energy thrown to the ground.
It has become the symbol of the resilience I was forced to learn in hard times. I had no choice but to re-invent myself, block out all gruff voices, especially those in my head, to bounce back and carry on.
Flexibility, I have come to believe, is the true face of resilience. I love elegant porcelain teacups. They are baked in an oven to get hard – in preparation for steaming hot tea or coffee. But what happens when they fall on concrete flour? They sadly break.
Does the same happen to a tennis ball? No – it BOUNCES BACK. The harder it hits the floor, the higher it bounces up again.
And this, I have come to believe, is the secret to becoming resilient. Not to become harder but softer, pliable and flexible. Accept trauma and disappointment as part of life’s challenges. To be affected by suffering but not broken. To see failures not as a result of mistakes or shortcomings but as opportunities for growth.
