By Penny Power – Business Author & Human-Centred Speaker
Thank you for coming to this week’s Ponderings, you may have recently heard my Keynote on ‘Significance in the Age of AI’ – I am aware how many of you come to this blog each week, so welcome.
This week I’ve been reflecting on resilience.
Not the loud, heroic kind. Not the “push through at all costs” version. But the quiet, deeply human ability to get through things we once thought we couldn’t.
When we look back at childhood dramas, heartbreaks, disappointments, even those moments that felt catastrophic at the time, we often see something surprising.
They strengthened us and at times, perhaps they even created an inner protector. A voice that says, “Be careful.” But as life moves through its beautifully non-linear patterns, we begin to realise something else:
Every setback built something in us. Perhaps this is a lesson to share with our teenage generation, who fear and avoid pain and in doing so push the pain down the road for too long.
Pain builds resilience. There is no doubt about it. Not because pain is good in itself, but because we survive it. We all know that survival quietly turns into strength.
The definition of resilience is “our ability to mentally and emotionally cope with, adapt to and eventually grow from crisis, adversity, and stress”.
But here’s something important for us all to be aware of:
Resilience is not about blocking sadness. It is not about bypassing learning. It is not about pretending everything is fine.
It is about allowing the sadness… and still knowing:
“I can get through this.”
In our family, we have a phrase, “Bad is good.” Whenever something doesn’t go to plan, one of us will say it. Eventually, we always see why it was good.
Hannah (our daughter) has her own beautiful version of this: “Everything is always working out for me.”
I love these words as they are not denial. They are beliefs and long-term faith in our path. They remind us that today’s hurdle may be tomorrow’s strength.
When we seek the lesson in life’s setbacks, we almost always find one. Sometimes it’s clarity. Sometimes it’s humility. Sometimes it’s re-direction. Sometimes it’s courage we didn’t know we had.
And here’s what I know to be true through many of life’s twists and turns:
We have all been building our resilience muscle since the very first time we cut a tooth as a tiny baby, finding the solutions to soothe the pain, and then through…
… playground dramas
… career challenges
… heartbreak
… illness
… uncertainty
Every time you said, “I’ll try again.” Every time you stood up after being knocked sideways.
Emotional Intelligence is something I talk about often as a keynote speaker – whether I’m speaking at leadership events or business conferences. Resilience is part of our EI playbook. It is the foundation of emotional intelligence at work and it is what separates the leaders who endure from those who simply perform.
I’ve spent years as an inspirational business speaker and what I’ve learnt is this: the audiences who connect most deeply are not looking for motivation through volume. They are looking for someone who has lived it. The best leadership motivational speakers don’t shout louder, they share more honestly, my blogs are always about lived experience, a human journey..
So this week, on the subject of resilience, instead of resisting your challenges, what if you welcomed them?
Not because they are easy. But because they are shaping you.
Thank the lesson, even if you cannot see it yet.
And please, don’t carry it alone.
Resilience grows stronger when shared with people who can remind you who you are, when you momentarily forget.
Be honest about your struggle. Let someone hold the belief for you, remember when you let people in they feel more significant to you.
Because the truth is simple:
You have done hard things before. You are doing hard things now. And tomorrow, the sun will shine again.
With love,
Penny x
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