A Bumpy Road Ahead

The road is never smooth.  Beware the hidden dangers.  How do you cope when things go off course?

Just when I thought things were on track, two weeks ago I hit a bump on the road - well actually a car hit me onto the road.  Having had great intentions to be posting more blogs and getting 2022 off to a great start, I was unexpectedly side tracked after being knocked off my bike on a Sunday morning ride.

Luckily nothing broken but I did spend 2 days in hospital with a very sore back and grazes.  Back at home and starting to move around again, I began to think things would quickly get back to normal.  However, I had forgotten the repercussions of all the strong pain medications I had in hospital, and spent a couple of days moping around, bursting into tears at the slightest thing and terrible brain fog. So what has helped me to bounce back and re-energised?

Bouncing Back

Resilience is probably one of those over used words, like 'transformation', 'pivot' and 'unprecedented' and you may be fed up of hearing it.  However, for me it is a powerful word, it relates to our uniqueness as humans.  Our capacity to reframe and recover from challenging and difficult situations.  To harness our inner strengths.  To self-nurture and take control of the ‘inner game’.  Resilience is not something that always comes naturally.  It is a skill that can be learnt and developed over time.

Why being a business owner builds resilience

Stepping away a full time job and starting your own business is definitely one way to develop your resilience.  You are tested every day.  You need to learn from your mistakes and failures, choose your response to challenging situations, maintain a sense of perspective and become an expert at reframing.

Reading the stories of others, who have had far greater challenges in life than me, also helped me to keep things in perspective.  That’s not to say it’s been perfect (just ask the family), but at the end of the day, when I reflect on all the experiences over the last 8 years of setting up and running a business, I would not have changed anything.

Why it is important to grow your capacity to bounce back

We all know that the last 2 years of living through the pandemic has impacted people in many different ways.  It has challenged many of our social norms, our expectations of our governments, caused division amongst family and friends.  However, we know that more disruption is on the way, whether this is due to climate change, technological innovation, or social & political change.  We know that mental health and wellbeing has suffered and unless we become better at providing mechanisms to develop our capacity to reframe and bounce back the numbers will continue to grow and more people will suffer.

A starting point for developing resilience

There are six elements generally referred to which form the basis of resilience:

• Self-awareness
• Positive Frame
• Self-regulation
• Mental Agility
• Your Talents & Strengths
• Your Relationships

In the remainder of this post I’m going to talk about the first of these elements, self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.  It is generally agreed that there are degrees of self-awareness.  The research around it suggests there are a couple of different factors that influence the way we choose to respond.

1. How we think the situation will turn out
2. How much time and effort we believe it will take to get back on track.

There are a few things you can do to develop greater self-awareness:

• Create space & time daily to connect with yourself, avoid digital distractions and carve out solitude
• Pay attention to your inner state as it arises and try mindful walking, eating and listening
• Start keeping a journal as this helps to process your thoughts through writing and records your inner state at a point in time
• Start to practice deeper listening by paying attention to the speaker, observe their body language & emotions and try not to jump to conclusions, judge or evaluate
• Seek ways to broaden your perspective.  Volunteer for a charity or help out a neighbour.  Maybe ask your friends and family to give you feedback.

The role of a coach in helping develop self-awareness

In order to make real, impactful and lasting change people need to look inward and become familiar with that internal environment.  A coach can help you do this in a safe environment and provide you with tools too.  Complete the self-awareness scorecard and find out your areas for growth and where a coach may be able to help you close those gaps.

We know that the journey for most people over the last 2 years has been very bumpy and taken its toll in many different ways. 2022 is the year of the water tiger and symbolises courage, confidence, leadership & strength.  If you want to make 2022 the year of growth and renewal for you, self-awareness is a great place to start.