Rebuild your energy and resilience
There are times when you feel able to conquer the world. Others, simply showing up is a challenge.
Resilience is what enables us to take on life's challenges and pressures - and repeated use depletes our reserves. Rebuilding those energy reserves is of utmost importance to maintaining positive mental health.
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Working on your resilience is crucial, especially at peak times during your business year.
Why working on your resilience is the best gift for your business
The fast-paced life of a founder CEO can deplete your resilience, undermining your wellbeing and dampening your ambitions for your company.
The fast-paced life of a founder CEO can deplete your resilience, undermining your wellbeing and dampening your ambitions for your company.
When your resilience is low, you often feel exhausted from the demanding deadlines you set yourself, and your everyday workload feels like an impossible task.
When our energy levels are low we often hold back, which is something a client and I discussed recently in one of our coaching conversations. She’d been looking to make a number of changes, including emigrating to a new country and finding a new role. She has big ambitions for her career. However in this session, while talking about her ideal role, she wanted to keep as much as possible the same saying “I don’t have the energy right now.”
This resonated with me and I really understood her, because when you are handling big changes it depletes your energy levels and your resilience can run low, you don’t want to push or challenge yourself - you can’t do the things that you would normally do easily.
I admired her self-awareness and self-compassion, that she recognised all that she is taking on and gave herself space to adjust.
Adequately resourcing yourself
Resilience isn’t a character trait
When we think of resilience, it’s often something we aspire to have. We sometimes forget to recognise that we already possess it.
When you have resilience, you will have the energy to take a risk or extend yourself; to try out for a new role, to reach out to new leads with cold calls, or simply navigate the daily challenges of running a business.
Resilience is a resource
Resilience is a renewable resource you can draw from when you need it. Like savings in the bank. Collective resilience within a team can also be strengthened within a business.
There are many indicators that your resilience is running low, such as when things that are usually easy seem hard, like getting stuck in a conversation and not knowing what to say when normally you would have navigated it easily. Or hearing yourself say: “I don’t have the energy for this right now", or “I just can’t deal with that person today.”
Other indicators include:
Feeling out of control
Finding it hard to stay positive
Not wanting to make even one more decision
Low resilience levels can happen to anyone, which is why it’s important to be aware and take action when you start to recognise the signs. Proactivity ensures that your energy levels don’t get so low that you can’t refill them - commonly known as burnout.
Low resilience can leave you not wanting to make one more decision
How to preserve your resilience
There are structures you can put in place to prevent your resilience levels from getting too low in the first place.
You’re on a road trip and your car breaks down. What do you do? Pop your hazards on, put out your emergency warning triangle, and call for Roadside Assistance. Maybe you call a friend and head to the motorway services you passed a few miles back. Whatever the details, you problem-solve your way safely out of a situation and calmly execute the steps.
When your resilience levels are low, you react differently to the same situation. Thinking clearly, making decisions, and problem-solving is difficult. It’s just ‘one more thing to deal with’ - the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Elements in the scenario above identify different structures you can put in place to support your resilience and positive mental health.
Calling a friend: You’re identifying a supportive relationship.
Plan your way out of a crisis: Your mindset is critical to problem-solving.
Phoning Roadside Assistance: You’re using your available tools.
Identifying Motorway Services: You’re identifying a safe place to retreat to.
Maintaining composure: You’re ensuring your continued wellbeing.
Create a resilience checklist
Identify supportive relationships: Find the people in your circle that leave you feeling energised when you spend time with them. People that you can rely on.
Maintain a positive mindset: Connect to what you’re capable of, what you've achieved in the past and what is most important to you in life. Choose positive, encouraging language when talking to yourself in your head.
Make use of available resources: Financial resources and tools such as your laptop, CRM and software systems, advisors or a team you can delegate to.
Create a safe place: Somewhere you feel settled and secure. This might be a physical place or personal space you create in your schedule to focus on yourself, reflect and experiment.
Maintain your wellbeing: we’re talking physical and mental wellbeing. Are you getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, and looking after yourself?
Putting these structures in place will give you deeper resilience reserves. They’ll also rebuild your energy ready for when you need to stretch yourself to get through that next challenge.
How coaching can help build resilience
Your resilience checklist gives you a useful baseline to assess where you are physically and emotionally, empowering you to decide when to slow down or seek support when you need to.
A founder coach offers a supportive relationship and creates a safe space, free from judgement, to express doubts and expand your options - an available resource to draw on when you need to work through a decision. A coach can help you identify the structures that will best support you, and can help you create the space you need to refill when your reserves have been depleted.
Want to find out more about how founder coaching with Aata can make you more resilient for the challenges ahead?