The Reason You Need Resilience.

When you think resilience in your business, most people only think of the business, but what about the business owner?  Without resilience in your ‘self’, then your business or career will inevitably suffer.
 
Your success in your business, career, and personal lives is dependent on how resilient you are to circumstances, trauma and other obstacles that you’re inevitably faced with.  Your ability to find solutions, bounce back and continue moving forward will not only affect your business or career, but will ultimately affect your health, mental health and relationships.
 
Ask yourself this question. When you’re in the thick of a stressful or traumatic situation, how do you respond?

The story of the Donkey And The Farmer is a good demonstration of resilience.  One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway, so it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all of his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realised what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Whenever I hear that story I always get hung up on how cruel the Farmer seemed toward the donkey.  Maybe I need to build my resilience around animal cruelty?  But, of course, that’s not the point of the story.

There’s certainly going to be times when life shovels dirt on you in all different manners.  Your resilience will determine how you respond.  Will your resilience shake it off so you can step up?  Or will you absorb all of the troubles that life dishes out?