Building Resilience to face adversity….

Life is full of ups and downs; every individual has his or her own experience of setbacks they have been through in their lives. Tragedies generally come unannounced in the form of accidents, life threatening diseases, breakups, job loss and leave lives shattered; well in majority of the cases the narrative goes that way however there are exceptional cases where the individuals have been thrown off the path they were happily moving on by a sudden storm but they regained control of their life and came back stronger.

My experience has shown that most people when faced by an obstacle in the form of an undesired job, a bad boss or a bad relationship accept it as part of their fate and keep banging their head against the wall causing hurt to themselves physically or emotionally again and again; at the most trying to find a way through the wall; fear of failure, lack of self-belief holding them back from taking a bold decision of changing the path. COVID 19 has thrown many a life off gear, companies have shut down or are facing huge financial losses, individuals have lost jobs or suffered losses in business.

Even in these adverse times there have been a few who due to the power of resilience have got their life back on track. What gave them the resilience to get back into action was their vision self-belief, their strong mental make-up, the risk- taking ability and the will to take bold decisions to change track.? In life one can find many examples of people who lost eyesight yet displayed a great vision, lost their limbs, or got paralysed in a life-threatening accident yet walked over mountains of obstacles to achieve their purpose of life.

Life is all about how one responds to the obstacles they encounter, some with vision and foresight are ready and find a way out whereas a large majority take up the role of a victim and get trapped losing focus of life. Some go so blind that when they find themselves left behind alone even in an unlocked room choose to bang their head against the wall to make way out or try and jump out of the window to catch up with their other colleagues instead of just walking out of the door and setting a new course of life. 

Obstacles are indicators that something is going wrong in the job one is engaged in or the relationship one is bound in and they may go worse if corrective actions are not taken. When obstacles start getting bigger in size it is better to take a step back, maybe take a break and seriously analyse the situation, make efforts to understand the situation and look for permanent solutions. If solutions are not forthcoming from within than it is better to look for a change; strengthen your skills and emotions and make an exit in a new direction, even taking a total U turn and starting life from scratch is an option worth considering.

Taking an uncharted path may open more avenues, help you re-invent, rediscover yourself, make you aware of the talents and skills you had lost sight of and take you on a journey you always longed for, help you find the purpose of your life.