The Resilience Fundamentals: Excerpt from The Resilience Dynamic®

The fundamentals of resilience are not simplistic, but they are simple and deep. The Resilience Engine research shows three Top Enablers of resilience, and a fourth that kicks in at very specific levels of resilience. Embracing these as part of your day to day will revolutionise your performance and wellbeing.

Further, they are not a list. They are interdependent – all enablers are needed and work together as part of the Resilient Way.

The top three enablers are:

• Being present. Being able to be present right here, right now. This is the ability to just ‘be’. It enables you to be calm and feel grounded. In skill terms, it enables you to notice more, to widen your perspective, to listen to yourself and to others, and therefore really ‘see’ the resilience data that is available to you. It also allows you to connect with your vision of what you want in any situation.

• Energy. Maximising your energy – all elements of this. This is crucial. As I’ve said earlier, energy and resilience follow the same ups and downs. Investing in your energy isn’t all of your resilience, but gosh, it’s a real fast-track to boosting it!

• Learning – how you learn, not just what you learn. This is available to you once you’re right in the middle of Breakeven. It’s a kind of tipping point in the Resilience Dynamic® that signals that a small surplus of capacity for learning has been made available. You have time not just to do-do-do, but to do-think-do-think. The real core to shifting way out to the higher levels of resilience resides in this core ability, to learn well.

Then there is a fourth enabler that kicks in from Bounceback upwards:

• Purpose. This is about making the meaning in your life come alive day to day. It’s more than goals, it’s about enacting the things you really care about, that you ‘bond’ to.  

Bonding to goals provides the determination and resilience to overcome obstacles and achieve results. The very act of bonding to a goal brings energy to the pursuit. (Kohlrieser, G. & Goldsworthy, S. Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential through Secure-Base Leadership. (John Wiley & Sons, 2012)

Purpose fosters the specific goals you have for yourself and your life, and these in turn, provide the direction of travel across your work and life. Purpose is only worth getting into if you are either at Bounceback upwards, or in fact at the lowest level of resilience, Breakdown. By (re)connecting to your purpose, you re-galvanise energy towards the important stuff of life that really matters.

Embedding these enablers as part of your day-to-day habits will enable transformational change. Embracing these, and learning to eliminate the barriers to resilience, is the path towards feeling at ease.

The Resilience Accreditation Programme delves deeper into the enablers of resilience as well as other key research findings from the Resilience Dynamic, integrating how to achieve coherence between performance and wellbeing.

Accredited for 60 hours ICF CCEU, upon successful completion of the Resilience Accreditation Programme you will be granted a 3-year renewable licence to practice flexibly using Resilience Dynamic models and tools, such as the Top Enablers of Resilience, with clients and colleagues. You will also become part of a vibrant community of coaches, connecting and learning together through regular CPD, drop-in sessions and an annual in-person conference.

The Resilience Dynamic® by Jenny Campbell is available to purchase here: https://mybook.to/The-Resilience-Dynamic