Musings Episode 67: Resilience…

Going through some old DVDs I had stowed away I ended up coming across the movie Alfie (2004) this weekend – the one with Jude Law. Thought it’d be some pretty good background noise so popped it into the PS3 and continued organising.

There’s a funny little thing in the film where Alfie’s constantly expanding his vocabulary via a “word calendar,” where each day of the year provides a new word inclusive of definition for the user’s education – and entertainment.

Alfie mid-film arrives at the word “resilience.”

Whether in terms of substance, subject, or object, the definition of the word pretty much means one thing – the ability to “bounce back” or recover quickly after being stretched, bent, knocked back, or encountering difficult or pressing situations.

Musings Episode 67: Resilience

Resilience really is something, when you think about it. It’s a quality that grows over time, slowly progressing yet never ceasing to improve its form.

What’s the clear-cut, well-defined stuff that actually makes resilience, in the psychological sense though?

The ability to regulate emotion.

Keeping your head in check and spirits high.

Optimism.

Looking at failure as feedback, instead of a setback.

Or, as I like to simply put it, the fine tuned ability to hone in and look through the clouds, realizing the outlined light past them – you know what I’m talking about – throw on a pair of shades and you can see it crystal clear.

Starting off, building up resilience can be a bit like converting putty to chewing gum.

Think on that for a minute – putty will shape and form to whichever way it’s pushed – no resistance, no independence, no “spine.” Putty is pliable, you can work with it easily – but it’s not much use when you need to get a heavy-duty job done, and it’s not much use when a bit of rain comes along – it deteriorates quite quickly if it doesn’t get a chance to dry. It’s for the finish work.

Now think about chewing gum. Chewing gum starts out soft. It’s also easy to shape however you want…but the more you chew, the tougher it becomes. Chew it long enough and eventually it becomes so tough it hurts your jaw – its resilience to your teeth trying to deteriorate it builds up slowly but surely. Burst its bubble and it comes back stronger.

This is where you ask yourself – is your resilience like putty – or gum?

Are you the type of person to wallow in pain, the past – or are you the type to build yourself up and out of those things, focus on what really matters?

Your resilience is your key to success. Your management of emotions is your key to success. Your ability to focus on what matters, and forget what’s useless is your ticket to a relentless drive and desire to consistently go forward in life.

Your resilience is another muscle to build among the endless amount of both large and small muscles you already have – only difference is it’s a mental one.

As always…

Stay awesome.

– Rego

Improve Your Lifestyle. Improve Yourself. This is Life. This is Rego’s Life.™

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