Every time I deliver a resilience training session I encourage an exploration of what resilience means to attendees. I’m always amazed to hear new perspectives from every group.
This week’s training session was no different. Participants broke it down to different kinds of resilience including frontline staff who come home from a tough day and have to quickly turn around a few hours later and go back in to face more. I was picturing an airplane being ‘turned around’ between flights and the pressure to do it quickly and get back in the air. Except of course frontline staff have more to ‘turn around’.
Another kind of resilience mentioned was financial resilience, for example when someone wealthy loses all their assets, but is able to build it back up again. That’s an extreme example, but financial resilience is probably something we don’t credit ourselves enough with.
A conversation I had with a taxi driver in Dublin last year was enlightening. He was now a grandfather and enjoying being able to be present for his grandchildren, without all the financial worry of feeding and clothing them like he had had with his own children. ‘But…’ he said, ‘everything got paid in the end. The bills got paid somehow. We got them through school. Sometimes I wish now I hadn’t worried so much at the time’. Hindsight is easy of course. We all worry about our livelihoods and responsibilities.
But back to the credit (the good kind!). When was the last time you acknowledged and celebrated your financial resilience? If you are reading this, you survived the recession in 2008 and possibly even the recessions of the 1980s. I have a roof, food in the fridge, clothes in the wardrobe. Children are in school in uniforms and with books. Yes, there have been times we haven’t known how to overcome a big bill. But we did it. You’ve done it. Kudos, credit, and a round of applause!
Until next week, take care,
Lisa.
