Guest articles

Julia set up The Learning Quest back in 2001 so that she could help busy executives and organisations improve their performance and be the best they can possibly be!

The definition of resilience is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties/ toughness”

Covid 19 and the ensuing lockdown restrictions came as a real surprise across the globe…none of us were expecting it to happen. Often our resilience is most needed during uncertain times. How we react to adverse situations, differs for us all. An example of another ‘curved ball’ experience for me was when I was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 years ago. Both unexpected situations have tested and strengthened my resilience. Here are some tips that might help you as well.

1) First and foremost keep positive about your situation. For me 4 years ago it was so important to be as optimistic as I could be. The same is true of dealing with Corona virus. Even if being optimistic isn’t a natural trait, it’s helpful to look on the positive side…think of a glass half full as opposed to half empty. I likened my situation 4 years ago to ‘going over a speed bump and took it as a reminder to slow myself down’. How do you classify the situation you’re currently in?

2) Keep up with your friends and family. I am blessed to be surrounded by many friends and family from all different areas of my life. I’ve kept up with all my contacts both through my cancer experience and more latterly during lockdown. It’s been an absolute joy to chat with tennis friends and old college friends regularly and the laughter we’ve had has kept us all positive. What friends do you need to make contact with and get support from?

3) Look after yourself. During lockdown we were reminded in the UK to take daily walks to maintain our health and fitness. Likewise, during my cancer experience I tried wherever possible to listen to my body and take all the medics’ advice. Now we are out of lockdown I’m trying hard to keep as fit as possible both mentally and physically and where necessary make small changes to my lifestyle. I’m even using a Personal Trainer to help increase my fitness levels. What small tweaks do you need to make to look after yourself more?

4) Embrace Change. We have all heard of the saying ‘change is inevitable’ and have probably seen the image of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly and the caterpillar saying ‘you won’t get me up in one of those’! It’s important not to get stuck in the moment but to grow and move forward. Think about the goals that you have that are realistic and attainable now and ones which will propel you forward. What goals would you still like to work on and what’s holding you back?

5) Plan for the future. We don’t know what lies in front of any of us; however it is important to take stock of your situation and think constructively and objectively about the future. Whilst having cancer treatment I thought very carefully about all the goals I still wanted to work on and was able to plan positive, realistic steps to achieve them over the coming months/years. One of those was to expand my business into the Middle East and this has been a great achievement for me. What are your plans for the next 6 months/a year?

If you or your staff need help and support in challenging times then get in contact with julia@thelearningquest.co.uk for friendly expert coaching.
Call Julia Macmillan, Managing Director of The Learning Quest Ltd on: 0044 7773722768