Develop Resiliency by Focusing on Three Traits

Some people thrive in the face of setbacks, while others seem unable to recover. For example, how would you respond to being laid off or not getting a promotion? Would regaining your confidence be fairly easy, or very difficult? Cultivating three traits can help you become the type of person who rebounds from these types of setbacks:

• Seeing reality clearly. Resilient people have down-to-earth views on the situations they face. They aren’t overly optimistic, and they don’t deny reality. Instead, they stare down even harrowing situations, viewing them as a way to train themselves in how to survive hardships.
• Finding meaning in what happens. People who bounce back devise constructs about their suffering to create some sort of meaning for themselves and others.
• Making do. Overcoming obstacles means having to improvise a solution to a problem when you don’t have what you want. Resilient people make the most of what they do have.