September 11, 2015 - Written by: Becky Solomon

Don’t Let the Little Things Bring You Down

I had one of those meetings today where senior management had to break it, in a really upbeat way, that essentially services were going to be cut and not everyone would have a job in around 5 years time. That’s OK for me, I’m growing up in the era of temporary contracts rather than ‘a job for life’.

Whilst I couldn’t help thinking that it was a bit of a not-so-clever way to break some bad news (like labeling redundancies as ‘transformation’) there were some interesting parts of the speech. The main buzzword that stuck in my head after all of it was ‘resilience’. Yes, another word, most likely in this case to mean ‘suck it up – bad shit is coming our way and it’s going to keep happening’.

However, quite a nice metaphor for life, I thought, and quite an articulate way of phrasing it.

I thought about what my life would be like if I applied a little more resilience at times… Easier said then done, but for someone who probably worries a little too much, it could be a real advantage.

I know when I was having a bad time a few years ago, I had absolutely no resilience. In a world that had pretty much crumbled around me, it would only take one little thing that didn’t go my way to send me into a downwards spiral.

This is one of the reasons I believe people should always aim to be nice to strangers – you never know what they are going through or whether they are really are only just hanging in there.

Being nice to strangers can be the difference between restoring their faith in humanity or them wanting to crawl back into bed and not face the world until another day. I digress, however, I was in that place once.

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With a lot of help and encouragement, I started to build more confidence, and over time, things didn’t bother me as much. I learnt not to catastrophise everything. Sometimes I forget that lesson, and its useful to be reminded.

If, when you’re having a bad day you can think, it’s just a bad day, everyone has them and then go home and induldge in something that really cheers you up. If you don’t get the job you wanted, you can think, you know what, better luck next time.

It takes time and hard work to get what you want, but it will come.

Resilience protects our self confidence when things don’t go our way. It gives you perspective and keeps you focused.

After the meeting today, not getting an interview for a job I applied for suddenly didn’t seem so bad – it’s probably going to take me a fair bit of time to get another job still. Later, when I completely ballsed up my run because my knees hurt, I instantly got annoyed at myself that I hadn’t achieved what I wanted.

Then I thought: No! Brain – listen to body! It just ain’t happening today, and that doesn’t matter because I tried and I will try again another day. Particualy when the going gets tough, I think by actively putting things into perspective, it will help me a lot.

Bad stuff isn’t ever going to stop happening (sorry kids, that is life) but how you deal with the bad stuff can probably have quite an impact on your outlook on life.

And so will commence my week of actively trying to be resilient. I recommend trying it for a day and seeing how you get on!

If you enjoyed this article, why not check out: ‘4 Reasons, whatever you are going through, you are STILL the hero of your life‘?