How Do You Bounce Back Resiliently?
By: Rajeev Mudumba
Tags: Success, Worklife, Productivity, Entrepreneurship, Resilience

In this competitive world, the promise of growth and success demands yeomen efforts on our part. We need to work hard, and smart for prolonged periods of time in order to taste the success we desire. However, this pursuit doesn’t necessarily demand that we suffer and endure in anticipation of that end goal. When we do, we tend to lose focus and produce little. We need to work at our optimum levels until we can, take breaks, rest, and rejuvenate before we get back to our work with a vengeance at the same level of productivity, as before. Discipline is what keeps us going at such constant levels, and that is what resilience is all about; to refresh, renew, and reposition ourselves on the plan of action!

We should work when we need to work, and rest when we need to. Our bodies and minds demand it. Yet, we ignore and pride ourselves in multi-tasking, going the extra mile, and always racing against time to do more than we can!

In this digital age, we are so addicted to refreshing our emails from time to time, for we now live in times of instant gratification. Just as we are ready to react and respond in real-time, we have also honed the need for instant responses! While we may attribute this to allow for heightened productivity, the opposite is actually true.

When I reply to an email or write one up, I do that in real-time but, like to sleep on it and redo it again. The tone and details change so drastically between the two, and I am amazed by the quality of the response post sleeping on it.

In this day and age, we have geared ourselves to push through, though exhausted, more out of habit than anything else. The problem is not that we drown ourselves in hectic schedules in our desire to do more, but we have wrongly construed the definition of determination, hard work, and resilience. And, the result, we overwork ourselves though we know the detrimental impact it has on our health, well being, relationships, quality of results, and level of success.

Being tough has been looked upon as a virtue in our workplace. The ability to tough it out and push through is seen as a mark of being successful. However, being tough is not resilience, and neither is the aspect of showing crude determination by wading through work despite the challenges.

We, humans perform better when we take a pause, relax, rejuvenate and get back at it. Doing that can change the outcome from when we tough it out. Even to safeguard our thinking, our creativity and quality of outcomes, we need to take a pause, rest and recollect. When I talk about taking a pause, it’s not just about stopping work, it’s also about stopping your thoughts from running on the same track like a runaway train! Easier said than done, I understand that. But, we need to practice plugging off totally, in order to recoup at our best.

We spend a better part of our lives chasing work, resulting in all of us becoming workaholics at varying degrees. We have the incessant need to keep our brains busy with thoughts, and we turn back to our work for that. It’s time we learn how to take a pause, disconnect, rejuvenate, and reconnect. Burnout due to incessant pursuit of work is seen too often, and these practices will allow to diminish that.

So, how do you cultivate the habit to recover, rejuvenate and build resilience?

Start with taking breaks while at work and when on a break, totally disconnect with what you were doing and try something different. Perhaps, read a chapter in your favorite book, go for a walk, chat with a friend or nurse your favorite beverage sitting amidst nature. The goal is to shift your attention to give yourself a mental break.

Change how you manage your lunch breaks, don’t eat in the same spot everyday, never at your desk.

Start planning activities for your free time, time after work, days off, and weekends. Plan to spend time with family and friends pursuing your favorite leisure activities. When out, be totally out, do not let thoughts of work impede your personal time.

Pursue a hobby, seek pleasure from it and let the endorphins in your brain take over to make you feel good.

Your time off is as important, if not more than your busy time for what you do with your free time defines the quality and productivity of your busy time.

Change your narrative from time to time to put variety into your work and rest periods. It helps keep them interesting, allows for your creative juices to keep flowing, and ensures your motivation levels are always high.

Many people do not give up on continuing to work incessantly since they attach their identity to their work, and fear losing themselves if they are away from work. Face your fears by learning to separate yourself from your work. Be kind to your self, practice self compassion so you learn to build that self confidence of who you truly are, even away from your work.

Remember, you are a unique individual, not your work or anything else that you identify with. Your ability to be resilient will allow you to be comfortable with yourself, juggle work and play equally with quality outcomes, and will help you keep your undercurrents of motivation and happiness all the time.