Resilience: The Key to Success

Posted by Harmony Rousseau on Apr 22, 2007 in Psychology, Success | 0 comments

I was reading the April 2007 edition of Selling Power magazine today (the article doesn’t seem to be online) and came across a great article on the psychology of success and what makes some people more successful than others. One key factor is resilience.

According to Andrew Shatte, an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the reason why resilience is so important is because we all fail at some point or another. As much as we wish we would never make mistakes or fall short, sometimes we end up dropping the ball. Successful people are quicker to shake off the negativity, learn from their mistakes, and get back in the game.

According to Shatte, there are 7 important factors that lead to becoming more resilient – and the good news is that they can all be learned. Since the article is geared more towards selling, I’m going to list the factors and add my interpretation for each rather than quote the article.

Emotional Regulation – Successful people are able to keep their emotions in check rather than bouncing like a pinball from manic to depressed to enraged. I was just listening to a Tony Robbins lecture where he discussed how simply changing the words we use to describe our mood can change how we feel. For instance, when he and two colleagues were confronted by the exact same news that would affect each in the same way, they each reacted completely different. One was “enraged” and flew out of control. One was “annoyed” or “peeved” and remained calm. And Tony was somewhere in between. Sometimes, all we need to do to change our state is to observe our state and then change the way we describe it. Successful people still feel strong emotions, but they don’t let those emotions dictate how they will behave in a situation.
Impulse Control - Successful people are able to control their impulses. They don’t react with anger after an interaction with a rude prospect. They also don’t go on an impulsive shopping spree or on a food binge to make themselves feel better. They are aware of their impulses but consciously choose whether to act on them.
Causal Analysis – Successful people realize that every effect has a cause. They accept responsibility for where they are today. Yes, some things are out of their control, but they look for the things they do have control over and where they may be able to improve. They are also willing to do what it takes – and put in the hours – to succeed.
Self-efficacy – Successful people realize that they are in control over their personal destiny and can change their outcomes. If they don’t like where they are now, they know they can take steps to change their circumstances. They don’t blame others or play the victim, but look for ways to change themselves.
Realistic optimism – Successful people remain optimistic about their situation – but they inject it with a healthy dose of realism. They focus on what they are confident they can accomplish (even if others say they can’t) and then take steps to achieve that. They are also able to distinguish between being realistically optimistic about the best case scenario and wishful thinking (such as they’ll win the lottery today or a large sum of money will be handed to them).
Empathy – Successful people are able to put themselves in the shoes of others. They accept that others view the world differently than they do and are able to decipher why others think and act the way they do.
Reaching out – Successful people set goals that make them stretch and take them outside their comfort zone. As with any new thing, it’s possible that they may fail, but if they do, they are more likely to pick themselves up and try again until they achieve their goals. They look to other successful people for guidance and continuously learn new things to help them succeed.