The Ignored Element of Resilience That’s as Important as Bouncing Back
Whenever you hear coaches talk about resilience, 99% of the time they focus on how one bounces back from failure. What’s more, almost all definitions of resilience are also in the context of bouncing back when something bad happens. This view of resilience is an oversimplification.
While it’s true that having the ability to bounce back is a critical element of resilience, it’s not the only element. The ignored element of resilience that’s as important as bouncing back is how one behaves as things are going bad in the moment.
Bouncing back from adversity is the final step in resilience. The first step is one’s immediate reaction to adversity. Those behaviors in this first step dictate the behaviors one will need to bounce back. Or if a bounce back is even possible.
For example, if you wake up to your smoke detector going off what is your immediate reaction? Do you panic or do you behave calmly executing a plan to mitigate a potential house fire? If you panic, you may need to bounce back from your house completely burning down. Worse case death could eliminate your ability to bounce back completely. On the other hand, if you behave calmly and execute a mitigation plan you may put out the fire before there’s any major damage.
As you can see, it’s unwise to ignore the early elements of resilience. Before bounce back is even possible, learning how to behave with resilience in real time during an adverse event is an absolute must.