5 Signs You’ve Become More Resilient

Sharon Moore September 26, 2014

Study after study shows that resilient people are those who succeed more often in their undertakings. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from the difficult things that happen in life. While human beings are certainly made from the same stuff, our level of resilience does vary.

If you ever want to succeed in whatever endeavour you’re going through, you must focus on building your resilience. How – by allowing yourself to experience failure over and over again, without being afraid. Sounds hard? It is, but not as hard as you think.

Here are 5 signs you have become more resilient.

You believe in yourself.

A resilient person has a clear sense of his own potential, capability, and ability to cope and achieve. Confidence is what fuels you to do better, to strive harder, even if you know things aren’t going to be easy. If you always doubt yourself, that means you haven’t established a strong sense of resilience yet.

You manage your emotions well.

An important indicator of resilience is the ability to cope with negative emotions and manage them efficiently. If you find yourself being calm and sensible even during stressful situations, you know you are resilient. Emotional regulation is a crucial aspect of resilience. Without it, bouncing back is an impossible thing to do.

You’re a realistic optimist.

Optimism is another key ingredient to resilience. Having an optimistic outlook will keep you motivated and focused on your goals. But it is not enough that you are optimistic. You must be a realistic optimist. This combines the positive outlook of optimists with the clear-eyed perspective of pessimists, new research has found.

You are courageous enough to fail.

Resilient people don’t run away from taking risks. They understand that failures are not failures per se, but opportunities to learn. These people don’t lose hope. Rather, they try to assess what could have gone wrong in their first try and devise a better strategy the next time. When things don’t go your way, don’t be discouraged. Know that it is just a stepping stone and you’re almost halfway there to your goal.

You’ve cultivated self-awareness.

Self-awareness is critical to being resilient because it helps you understand your psychological and physiological needs. Resilient people are self-aware, which means they are good at listening to the subtle cues their body and their mood are sending. Incorporating mindfulness meditation in your daily life is a great strategy to cultivate self-awareness.