Build your own resilience toolkit

The human brain can be great at ignoring or forgetting what we have done well, and focusing on our mistakes, errors or ‘areas for development’.

By building our own Resilience toolkit we can help to balance this out – bringing more of your skills in to view.

How does it work?

You begin by looking back through emails/texts/certificates etc and finding evidence of things you have done well.

This could be a simple email from a colleague thanking you for your time or a good appraisal or even a piece of work that you are particularly proud of.

You can either print these off and keep them in a physical resilience toolkit (why not start a folder or box?) OR if you prefer digital records, then go ahead and create a digital version.

Once you’ve gone back through your past, it’s time to start working on the present and future.

Now, you need to start noticing when you get further positive feedback or thank you’s and add these to your toolkit.  As well as this you should notice when you feel that you have done a good job and add this too.

Over time your folder or box will be overflowing with wonderful things…..all about YOU.

Now what?

Now – when you are feeling a little overwhelmed, worthless or like you aren’t good enough….pull out that box.

Inside you will find concrete proof from yourself and others that you ARE good at what you do.  That you ARE enough and that you ARE resilient.

When life can become a little overwhelming, how many times have you been told to ‘keep your chin up’? The challenge when our ‘chin’ needs help is that we tend to ruminate on more negative aspects of our life. One way to use this resilience toolkit is to take the time to read it when you are feeling this way. It should help to boost some of those good mood hormones to help you move forward with purpose.

It is also an incredibly useful tool for populating competency-based questions too!

 

Added Bonus – Tips for Completion:

I also find that a little mood boosting treat can be useful when building and reading through your toolkit.

Try adding one of the following foods to your toolkit to give your brain an extra boost;

 

  • Dark chocolate is rich in compounds that may increase feel-good chemicals in your brain.
  • Coffee provides numerous compounds, including caffeine and chlorogenic acid, that may boost your mood.
  • Since up to 90% of your body’s serotonin is produced in your gut, a healthy gut may correspond to a good mood. Fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kombucha, and kimchi, are rich in probiotics that support gut health.
  • Bananas are a great source of natural sugar, vitamin B6, and prebiotic fibre, which work together to keep your blood sugar levels and mood stable.

 

 

Career Change, Career Development, Interview coaching

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