A couple weeks ago I partnered with my colleague and friend, Sylvia Baffour to deliver a program on resilience habits. A main topic of the program was the importance of developing a resilience mindset. Everyday habits play an important role in developing a resilience mindset; here are three that we encouraged participants to practice:

Conquer Your Disruptors 

Every organization has them. One of the organizations I work with calls them fire drills. Another calls them daily malfunctions, and in one of my first jobs, we called them the elitists. These are the upsets that happen with such frequency that we should predict them, name them, and learn strategies for managing them. To help you begin to identify your own disruptors, below are three examples from my encounters:  My physical therapist says her disruptors are cancellations, and they used to upset her whole day, causing her to become frustrated. Then one of her colleagues exclaimed, “I love cancellations!” When the two chatted about it, the cancellation lover said, “I keep my running clothes in my office. Now when I get a cancellation, I go for a super quick 40-minute run. It’s amazing!”     In a manufacturing facility where I was conducting training, we learned that the equipment often breaks which is quite disruptive! Deadlines were missed, causing the employees to work overtime. This was expensive and problematic. After reviewing trends, it was discovered that the equipment experienced mechanical problems approximately twice per year, and production halted for an average of two days each time. Once this was discovered, this work slippage was calculated and expected. It was no longer a surprise, and that helped to reduce the stress it caused.

In one of my summer jobs as a college student I worked in a high-end women’s apparel store. It was the store policy to accept any merchandise that a customer returned. Prominent women in the DC area would shop during the week, purchase their gowns and finery, wear them on the weekends, and then return all the items on Monday morning. While they were in the store on Monday they would often make smaller purchases and then have tea in the tea room and chat with their friends about the weekend. My colleagues and I were incensed by the customers’ behavior until the manager of the store spoke at an all-staff meeting and shared why the store’s philosophy was intentional and working for sales. He changed our disruptors into something fun to watch, laugh about, and name – “the elitists.”

Mind Your Monologue

Another strategy that we covered during the program was minding your internal monologue. When faced with a project or task that feels hard, what do you say to yourself? Do you remind yourself of a similar task that you did and felt good about, or do you focus on the negative? We shared examples of how your inner monologue creates future outcomes, and we encouraged participants to spotlight the positives.

Practice Mindfulness

You can’t talk about resilience without talking about mindfulness. Do you pray? Practice yoga? Journal? Meditate? Train in Tai Chi? Or engage in another mindfulness practice? There are so many ways that we can reset and respond to the chatter in our brains. What are your favorites and what do you practice daily? Please share with me!

To learn more about the program on Resilience Habits and other programs, please click here.