Cultivating moral resilience

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Resilience is generally considered to be the ability to recover or adapt well to stress, adversity, or trauma; it ensures that change and challenge improve, rather than hurt our lives, and fortify rather than weaken our spirit. Resilience helps us to see that difficulties need not leave us eternally damaged; only temporarily challenged.

Moral resilience, while still a nascent concept, is related to psychological resilience but distinct in three ways. Cynda Hylton Rushton, a leading scholar in the field of clinical ethics and a professor of nursing and pediatrics at the John Hopkins School of Nursing, says, “Moral resilience focuses on the moral aspects of human experience; the moral complexity of the decisions, obligations, and relationships; and the inevitable moral challenges that ignite conscience, confusion, and moral distress.” Because the moral domain is connected with all dimensions of human resources — biological, psychological, cognitive, spiritual, and relational — building moral resilience can benefit us at a whole person or embodied level.

3 Characteristics of grit?

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Passion

Where there is passion, there is always a purpose. Passionate people know themselves inside and out. They have a clear understanding of their values, beliefs, and needs. More importantly, they live in alignment with their truth and inspire others to do the same. Living with passion is about paying attention to and following what makes you come alive inside.

Perseverance

Persevering, despite all odds, is about learning how to sit with your darkness and soften into the discomfort. The only difference between those who succeed versus those who fail is their willingness to continue failing forward. It’s knowing that your desire to achieve your dreams burns brighter than any obstacle.

Resilience

Gritty people are resilient, in the sense that they thrive through adversity. They reframe every challenge as an opportunity and do the work to become the master of their emotions. Research reveals that resilience is a test of how tough you are. Instead, it has everything to do with your willingness to keep trying after others have given up. Resilient people are conscious enough to know when it is time to surrender to the rollercoaster ride of life.

Adaptability: cultivating resilience

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“Do not judge me by my success,” said Nelson Mandela, “judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

In the words of Winston Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

What these men are talking about is resilience.

Clearly, the world is looking for strategies to cope with change. After all, almost every admirable figure in history has demonstrated resilience. Their words bring us hope. Their stories tell us that it’s possible to survive through upheaval and the unknown.

What does it take to recover quickly from setbacks? What are the conditions of rolling with the tide?

In Daniel Goleman’s framework of Emotional Intelligence, adaptability is one of the competencies associated with resilience. One of four self-management competencies, it refers to how well we manage complexity and how skillfully we respond to change. 

Resilience and regret

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Everyone makes mistakes but not everyone reacts the same way. Basically, there are two categories of response: regret or resilience. They’re polar opposites. Like light and darkness, they can’t coexist in the same time and place. So the choice is yours. So the choice is yours. How will you go forward after you’ve made a fool of yourself? What will you say? What will you do? Will you bounce back or fall apart?

Resilience is simply the ability to rebound from a setback or challenge — first in your thoughts and feelings, and then in your actions.

Regret is the tendency to dwell on problems, feel victimized, become overwhelmed — and then, possibly, develop reactive behaviors such as substance abuse.

How to be a more gritty person

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In their quest to be the best, gritty people identify their purpose and goals, zero in on the skills needed to get them there — then develop those skills through regular practice. By refining skills daily and diligently, practice becomes second nature, and productive habits are formed. It’s important to remember that mastery doesn’t happen overnight, but rather, is an incremental process.

Many high achievers cite the value of this approach, in which multiple smaller successes lead to larger, long-term wins. It all goes back to the growth mindset: Believe that you can develop your skills and talents, then take the steps needed to make it happen.

While many think resiliency comes from pushing oneself ever-harder, people actually do better when they give themselves a chance to recharge. Making time for mental recovery allows you to return to work stronger and sharper. Recovery can include activities such as going to the gym, taking a walk, pursuing a fun hobby or simply relaxing. Meditation and mindfulness techniques aid internal recovery while simultaneously building grit.

Building grit is a lifelong process, and it’s never too late to start.

Grit: an important tool for your kit

Grit — the powerful combination of passion and perseverance — is a strong predictor of future success.

The concept has been popularized by psychologist and talent science expert Angela Duckworth; she even has a Grit Scale you can use to quickly assess your own grit level.

People with grit focus on their long-term vision: this provides a sense of purpose as you work to meet the individual goals needed to realize your ultimate dream. The purpose is key to sustaining passion and perseverance, whether in times of success or setbacks.

Clearly defining a larger vision, as well as the goals that will get you there, is an important exercise for those who want to train for grit.

Flexibility and adaptability are other important aspects of grittiness. Staying focused on the greater purpose helps develop these qualities, and supports resiliency under changing conditions.

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Building resilience

Challenges, obstacles, adversity, and struggle are inevitable in life – especially when we choose to spend more time out of our comfort zone.

They’re going to happen – we can’t change, or control, that.

The bad news is: We can’t choose what happens to us
The good news is: We can choose how we respond to what happens

When we’re resilient in the face of a challenge we can influence two important things: how we move through it and what we get from it. And those matter, big time.

It won’t be easy but this is a skill we can all get better at.

Moving through, and learning from, a challenge is not a race. This could take days, weeks, months, or even years. Understanding the process and techniques won’t necessarily speed up the process, but they will definitely change how we experience it, and what we get from it.

(Source: Resilience Toolkit by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser)