Personal Resilience

What is Personal Resilience? 

For many of us, the pace and intensity of working in today’s connected world contributes to increasing levels of stress. Our minds are preoccupied by work matters with less and less ‘downtime’ to reflect, process information and plan for the future. This can, in turn, lead to even greater levels of stress and prevent us from dealing with problems.     

These problems affect people differently depending on their levels of resilience. Resilience is the ‘rubber ball’ factor - the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity - to carry on when met with stresses, problems and challenges, and come back stronger. Our levels of resilience vary person to person based on our beliefs, attitudes, experiences and physiology.  

Developing our personal resilience enables us to handle pressure and manage the challenges that get in our way. When we are resilient, we are able to respond to problems in a calm and mindful way without becoming consumed by negative emotions. Resilient people demonstrate greater self-awareness and are less likely to punish themselves for their perceived inadequacies and failures. Furthermore, they are less likely to scold others for making mistakes. As a consequence, they tend to be strong in critical situations.  

Why Personal Resilience is More Important Than Ever 

Exponential growth in technology and the digitalization of everything affects our lives both in- and outside of work. Technological infrastructure impacts on culture, efficiency and relationships of a business. However, being connected all the time has blurred the boundaries between our working and private lives meaning that the impact is not always positive. The expectation that we must always respond to e-mails and work commitments puts pressure on staff.  

Workplace Options, a leading employee wellbeing provider, conducted a global survey of over 100,000 employees across Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and South America. The survey found that: