Developing Resilience
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Nelson Mandela
When I was teaching in the Educational Psychology unit at UC, I constantly referred to the need to develop resilience. Teaching is a hard job (another thing I said in every single tute, much to my students' amusement!); and time and again I see teachers move out of teaching (or break down) because they are not resilient. As I mentioned in my last post, I left for different reasons, but I could just as easily have quit in my first year.
I truly believe that a positive attitude and resilience will get you through just about anything, and as I promised my nearly-teachers; if they were in teaching for the right reasons, they would be OK if they were also resilient. Below are some points from a handout I gave my students. I will elaborate on these points in future posts, but I hope they will give you some food for thought.
Self-esteem
Remind yourself regularly of your strengths and accomplishments.
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| Self-Esteem by Kiran Foster Under CC BY 2.0 |
Do something that you believe in, that means something to you.
Get involved in your community.
Do volunteer work.
Cultivate your faith/spirituality (if that’s important to you).
Relationships
Nurture your relationships with your friends and family.
Find people you can talk to about your problems.
Ask for and accept help.
Change
Anticipate change – especially in education!
Embrace change.
Cultivate a flexible approach.
Learn to adapt to new and surprising situations.
Optimism
Be hopeful.
Be grateful.
Appreciate the good things in life, no matter how small.
Express all kinds of emotions.
Don’t dwell on only negative emotions.
Health & Well-being
Get enough sleep.
Eat well.
Exercise, stay active.
Make time for fun.
Problem-solving
Develop your problem-solving skills.
Puzzle, think.
Set short and long-term goals for yourself.
Do something regularly that contributes to your goals.
Check in your goals regularly.
Keep learning
Some setbacks can be good learning opportunities.
In future posts, I'd like to share with you some of my experiences in developing these areas. I hope they will be of some help to you.
With thanks to the resources listed below for some ideas.
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