Have you ever read a book that changed your life?
Up until recently if you'd have asked me this question, I don't think I would have said yes. Now that I've started talking about resilience though, I've realised one of the driving forces behind mine.
Whilst I was backpacking in Australia, I read Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willinck and Leif Babin. The book may not be your cup of tea but it essentially teaches leadership, through responsibility and accountability. The key message I took away from it though, was to stop making excuses and start owning everything around me.
Successes or failures.
Problems or solutions.
And then it hit me. This might be the foundation of resilience.
A big part of resilience is viewing setbacks as opportunities. Which also means accepting setbacks. And owning them.
Whilst on my bike tours, it’s easy to see a problem with my bike or bad weather, and blame the bike or even nature itself. This mindset makes it easy to give up. As you assign blame elsewhere. Instead, by taking ownership of the problem, you accept the responsibility of fixing it.
If you start taking ownership of every challenge.
You won't be waiting for things to change.
You won't be blaming others for problems.
You’ll be adapting and improving.
You’ll be cultivating resilience.
Now this is a difficult mindset to build, because it’s all too easy to blame others and to step away from accountability. Especially when we truly feel like it’s not ours to own.
But if you can make the shift.
You will own the problem, the reaction and the solution.
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