Yesterday was a tough day on the trails, which is, of course, kind of the point. People don’t choose to run long distances in the mountains because it’s easy. Nevertheless, I found it especially trying, maybe it was the cold I was fighting, maybe it was the jet lag, maybe it was the extra KGs thanks to the BBQ and beer at SXSW in Austin. Regardless of the reasons why I or anyone else competing found it hard, there is one characteristic displayed by the people who chose to tough it out. Resilience.
In a war of attrition like an ultramarathon, (or, ya know… life) where we are constantly beset by difficulties of one type or another, our capacity for resilience is a strong determinant of whether we will overcome adversity or be beaten down by it.
Whether it’s striving towards a difficult goal we have chosen to take on, or coping with the left-field challenges life throws at us, cultivating resilience is foundational.
The good news is that resilience isn’t a fixed trait that we are born with a static quota of, but something that can be developed through deliberate practice. The following are some tactics you might find useful for enhancing your own resilience.
- Name it – Rather than being beset by a nebulous feeling of frustration, pain, overwhelm, etc. Take a moment to notice and name the source of your distress. Is it the physical sensation in your legs when you’re running a long distance? Is it the anger you feel at a perceived injustice? Whatever the case, grounding the cause in something tangible can make it simpler to mitigate.
- Notice the upside – It’s easy to focus on the negative aspects of adversity, but in almost all cases there is an upside, a lesson to be learned, a trait to be developed, a truth to be understood. Maybe not immediately, but certainly over time. So take a moment to bring to mind how this could be a path for growth.
- Exposure therapy – I have been through Wim Hof’s 10-week course which culminates in sitting for extended periods in an ice bath. But it doesn’t start there, the first exercise is inserting 30 seconds of cold into your regular shower and incrementally increasing from there. This is a well-worn method in cognitive behavioural therapy for phobia patients, but it also works well for developing resilience.
- Link to a powerful why – It was Freidrich Nietzsche who said, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Pushing through adversity is made all the more difficult if you don’t have a strong reason to. I’ve coached a number of athletes who struggled to complete their weekly training one it became challenging. Why? Becasue the didn’t think about the deeper reason they signed up for the race in the first place. The ‘5 Why’s’ exercise is useful when it comes to getting to the edge of your map of meaning.
As always, development only comes with deliberate practice. We will all be tested by life, and that is, of course, one way we develop resilience, but if you want to meet those unexpected challenges well, then spending some time cultivating resilience may be wise.