The Importance of Resilience: The Survival Skill

Failure is always an option. In fact, failure is inevitable. Every successful person has had their fair share of failure. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, only that you get back up again. The ability to recover after failing a task is resilience. Without resilience, the movers and shakers of the world would have forever remained in obscurity. Why is resilience important? Well, there are several reasons: Protection from overwhelming experience. Without resilience, every obstacle that you ever come across can be daunting. Developing mechanisms to cope with these difficult experiences makes them a little less scary. Handling stress. Stress isn’t inherently bad. Stress pushes us to act and make decisions in life. Instead of stress being something to hold you back, you can use it to draw motivation and push you forward. Mental well being. If you are resilient, then you won’t let failure get you down. Attempting a task unsuccessfully many times can be psychologically draining. Resilience gives you the mental toughness needed to maintain a strong psychological balance. Realistic mindset. Without resilience, we tend to view the world differently so that it doesn’t seem so intimidating. Resilience can help you see the world for how it is: unnerving, threatening, and even terrifying.  But it’s okay for the world to be a scary place. As long as you have the psychological capacity to handle it, you don’t have to bend reality to feel more comfortable. Make the best of a bad situation. Failure is not the end; it is an opportunity. Failure teaches us to learn from our mistakes and we can use that knowledge to move forward more efficiently. If we don’t learn from our mistakes, then we can never improve and do better the next time. Improve how you value yourself. Being able to bounce back from a bad situation can help improve your self-worth. Instead of seeing yourself as someone ill-equipped to handle bad situations, resilience can make you feel strong, powerful, and worthy.  To rely on yourself is not always easy, but to do it time and time again proves that you don’t always need someone else to do something for you. In turn, you will see yourself as someone who can succeed regardless of the challenge. Remember, resilience is a skill that you can cultivate and grow with training. Next time you find it difficult to pull yourself up from failure, do it any ways and see how being resilient can change your entire mindset.