Empowerment
To build resilience, you must feel you have the ability inside yourself to respond to challenges. You must hold strong to the belief that you can face and conquer challenges under your own power, and not depend on someone else to save you. Leaning on others for support and guidance through challenges is one thing. And it’s an absolutely necessary thing. This job is hard, and we can’t do it alone. BUT, resilience is internal. It’s our own way of being and our own attitudes towards our circumstances. Nobody can give those to us. We have to create and cultivate that by using our own experiences in combination with those lessons being shared with us by others.
When we feel empowered, we believe we can influence our surroundings, our circumstances, and the outcomes associated with those. This contributes to a sense of competence and confidence. We empower ourselves when we take risks, make mistakes (or even fail), and discover our own ability to get up and keep moving.
This month, let's work on building that mental model so brilliantly illuminated by J.K. Rowling's words here - we have the power within us to transform our situation. And if we can't influence the situation itself, we can transform our reactions to it. And within that, our resilience resides!
Read more about the disposition of empowerment in Onward, Chapter 7, pages 191-193, and refer to the resources below.
Consider including some of these as the topic of conversation during your weekly mentor/mentee meeting.
Building Resilience Through Self-Empowerment
