Resilience: How is your bounce-back game?

Anyone who has found their way to this article has likely faced some type of tough, trying, or even devastating life experience. There is a possibility that you never thought you would come back from the situation.

Maybe you have lost a loved one or dealt with a traumatic event. Maybe you have witnessed something that was difficult and terrible. Maybe a project at work flopped. The point is that whatever the event is, it is for you to decide if it was problematic or not.

These are all situations that we work to come back from. This is resiliency. According to Merriam-Webster, resilience is an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. Some people are better able to bounce back than others. Some people return at a better capacity than before the event. Yet others struggle to return to what their normal functioning was.

How do you improve your game? How do you turn the event into your secret move? Here are a few ideas to explore that can help you improve your ability to come back.

Did You Learn Anything About Yourself?

Through this process, simply put, did you learn anything about yourself? This doesn't need to be something life altering, you could've learned something simple or extraordinary.

Maybe you found that having a social connection is more important to you than you realized. You may have learned that not being able to control your situation causes you extreme fear and concern.

Push yourself to really explore what you can learn from this situation. How did you handle yourself? What was important for you? What caused you the most strife? Is there something you would do differently?

Keep On Growing.

What can you do with this new information? Can you incorporate the information into your life? Can you put things in place so that the next time you experience a trying event the experience is a little easier for you? Because, let's be real, something will happen again.

Say, for example, you found that social connections are more important for you than you realized. You might explore ways that you can make the connections that you already have more meaningful. You might find alternative ways to connect with people. Maybe you will explore new connections, join a club or group. This is just one example of how you might turn new information into a benefit.

Ask For Feedback.

Talk to the people closest to you, the ones you trust the most. Explore with them how they think you handled the situation. Do they have any suggestions for what you could've done differently? Is there anything they realized about you through the process? What did they think of your bounce-back game?

Bringing It All Together.

Being resilient and making your experience work for you doesn't mean that you won't ever deal with a difficult situation again. The goal is to get to know yourself better and prepare for the next situation you will encounter. Maybe the hit won't be as hard. Or maybe you will bounce back quicker.