Are Australians losing resilience?

Successful economies cultivate and admire resilient people – are we doing this in Australia – or have footballers and dubious celebrities become our true heroes?

Do you feel frustrated when you read day in, day out about the lives of these people instead of hearing more about the true heroes?

There are so many incredible people making amazingly valuable contributions to our community every day – volunteers, medical researchers, teachers, workers, etc and not least among those who add value are our entrepreneurs – those people who invest to build businesses, create wealth and build a stronger economy ensuring more benefits for all.

All these contributors have a great deal in common – despite the odds and often the lack of fanfare they keep on – they show enormous resilience in the face of obstacles.

Resilience was the first characteristic of the entrepreneur that I mentioned in my last blog and since that time I have given a great deal of thought to how one can build and retain personal resilience.

My thoughts have also been influenced by listening to Dr Paul Gibson from RMIT, who recently spoke to my TEC group about resilience and also from listening to an extraordinary young woman, Malalai Joya a young passionate Afghan who was recently banned from the Afghan Parliament for speaking her mind about the ongoing corruption in that country.

I decided to gather all their ideas about how to maintain personal resilience. Here are some thoughts:

• Develop an attitude of gratitude. Everyday think about something you can be grateful for. Not hard when we live in Australia!
• Love what you do. Be passionate about your life and your contribution. Not everyone has the good fortune to do exactly what they love, but everyone can learn to love what they do.
• Put your issues into perspective. So you can’t afford the latest Maserati – 60% of the population in Afghanistan lives on less than $2 per day!
• Be prepared. Expect the best, but prepare for the worst; have a contingency plan.
• Value your health, keep fit, not fat! Do something about your health every day as you cannot be resilient if you don’t care for yourself.
• Take responsibility for yourself and for the way you react to circumstances. The word responsibility is about the ability to respond. Every adult has the capacity to respond positively, the world does not owe us a living, we need to contribute in whatever way we can.
• Think for yourself. Live your own journey and don’t be influenced by what others have. We can never be rich or thin enough after all and we can never have enough of what we don’t need!
• Don’t be influenced or fooled by people or organisations whose true motives are about power and control.
• Be aware of the beauty of nature. Even on those most stressful days look at the sunset, sunrise, notice the balloons in the sky early in the morning – these views cost nothing.
• Find mentors and role models who live productive, fabulous lives. I love Richard Branson’s adventurous style of entrepreneurship – have fun while you are making money.
• Give to get. We do reap what we sow. If we sow little we get even less back.

I am sure all of you have personal resilience plans, please add your thoughts to the above, our country needs us to be resilient!

To read more Marcia Griffin expert advice, click here.

Marcia’s latest book, High Heeled Success (pictured left), and is a frank account of building a business from a solitary sales person to a multi-million dollar business with 4700 sales consultants around Australia and New Zealand. Contact Marcia to purchase. Marcia’s latest venture is skin care company griffin+row.