Overcoming adversity is more than a right of passage. Conquering the difficulties we encounter is the way we learn and grow. furthermore, when we reflect deeply on our experiences, we become continuous or life-long learners. This approach, in turn, becomes the fuel for a life of learning and growth and most importantly, fulfillment.

Resilience is what we all seek in 2021. Resilience relies on the capacity to find agency in the face of adversity. Furthermore, with each opportunity to reflect on the lessons of an adverse event, we build the foundation to connect more and more dots and develop wisdom. HOW is a big question on which we will all want to reflect! How do we become more resilient? Ultimately, what is needed to sustain and expand the resilience we gain in this VUCA world?

First, the year started the theme of resilience by exploring love, however, in February I shifted to peace, then on to courage.

2021 theme: resilience
April topic: Adversity
Weekly Foci included:

1. Processing adverse events;
2. Adversities’ dramas;
3. Risk in adversity; and,
4. Languishing in adversity.

“Flourishing is the peak of well-being: You have a strong sense of meaning, mastery and mattering to others.”

                                                                                                                            – Adam Grant

Resilience is enhanced when each of us is willing to stand up when the circumstances all for a challenge to the status quo. Frankly, that is more often needed than we would like to believe. AND, it is how the right things change and evolve over time.

Check out January’s blog to learn how to use this format to support your own journey of growth.

What surfaced through the month?

In the first week,

Learning to process adversity is a skill best honed thoughtfully over time. With time and a bit of wisdom it became clear to me that the capacity to process adverse experiences openly, honestly with humility helped me get to the other side with more clear and meaningful insights about myself, others and circumstances. This skill helps me turn challenges into opportunities for learning and growth far more easily.

In the second week,

When we get mired in the drama of our story or the story of another we often miss seeing the deepest insights clearly. This relates to the learning element I discovered in the first week of this topic building on the theme of finding the lessons through perspective. Perspective is clearer when we resist the temptation to over play the dramatic elements of the story we are telling our self.

Week three,

Interestingly we over play certain risks largely because we are unable to see the reality of the common risks to which we are blinded. This week’s focus took new life for me as I continually heard people’s fear about getting a vaccine over their fear of Covid 19. It was as though some had grown accustomed to the fear of the disease and feared the minimal risk of the cure more deeply. It was another reminder of how poorly human beings calculate actual risk.

When we languish in anything, like a fish in warm and every warming water, we grow comfortable making it possible for us to miss the potential danger. This week I focused on how the malaise most of us are feeling now is a warning of the potential for future, more serious, emotional challenges. Moreover, we benefit from noticing, labelling and then finding strategies to move away from languishing and toward flourishing. This requires effort and intention.

This Month’s Reflective Questions 

 

In the third newsletter, I reflect on how courage is  “Calculating Risk in Adversity“, I am reacting to the unreasonable and incomprehensible human response to risk.

Week four’s newsletter, Languishing in Adversity,  I admit to my own struggle with falling into the trap of languishing.

My favorite Insight for the month

Adversity is what we make of it. Furthermore, when we only see the problem, we risk becoming blind to the opportunity that always exists amidst every adversity. In our blindness we often seriously miscalculate the risks involved. This teaches us the value in generating and maintaining a clear head. Ultimately, this requires that we also work on building our capacity for critical thinking as a foundation.

 

An invitation to Walk with me.

Together let’s examine options consciously and authentically to make choices that move us strategically toward where we want to be.  Therefore, where my client wants to go, is my paramount focus. Strategy is about choices. Execution on these choices requires masterful performance. Furthermore, a well-developed process allows us to enjoy the journey far more fully

 

---

Be part of the journey in 2021.

Start by subscribing to my mailing list . Subscribers receive:

1. My interactive exercise to begin reducing the impacts of stress and feelings of overwhelm will be sent.
2. My newsletter with the related podcast episode will be sent weekly.
3. Special offers will be available to subscribers monthly including: a random offer of a complimentary one hour coaching conversation, access to roundtable engagements and group coaching on identity and related subjects, as well as information on an initiative on which I’m collaborating: #FeMasCon.