Monday, March 14, 2011

Resiliency

When we feel resilient in our lives we feel that we can handle our life situations and can stay present to what is happening in an empowered way. Resilience is the process of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences. Resilient people overcome adversity, bounce back from setbacks, and can thrive under extreme, on-going pressure without acting in dysfunctional or harmful ways. The most resilient people recover from traumatic experiences stronger, better, and wiser. Focusing can be used to increase resiliency as it increases out ability to bear witness to or be with ourselves and our life situation in a kind, compassionate way that allows us to stay present.

Take this quiz created by Al Siebert.
Rate yourself from 1 to 5 on the following: (1 = very little, 5 = very strong) 

1. In a crisis or chaotic situation, I calm myself and focus on taking useful actions.
2. I'm usually optimistic. I see difficulties as temporary and expect to overcome them.
3. I can tolerate high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty about situations.
4. I adapt quickly to new developments. I'm good at bouncing back from difficulties.
5. I'm playful. I find the humor in rough situations, and can laugh at myself.
6. I'm able to recover emotionally from losses and setbacks. I have friends I can talk with. I can
express my feelings to others and ask for help. Feelings of anger, loss and discouragement
don't last long.
7. I feel self-confident, appreciate myself and have a healthy concept of who I am.
8. I'm curious. I ask questions. I want to know how things work. I like to try new ways of
doing things.
9. I learn valuable lessons from my experiences and from the experiences of others.
10. I'm good at solving problems. I can use analytical logic, be creative, or use practical
common sense.
11. I'm good at making things work well. I'm often asked to lead groups and projects.
12. I'm very flexible. I feel comfortable with my paradoxical complexity.
13. I'm optimistic and pessimistic, trusting and cautious, unselfish and selfish, and so forth.
14. I'm always myself, but I've noticed that I'm different in different situations.
15. I prefer to work without a written job description. I'm more effective when I'm free to do
what I think is best in each situation.
16. I "read" people well and trust my intuition.
17. I'm a good listener. I have good empathy skills.
18. I'm non-judgmental about others and adapt to people's different personality styles.
19. I'm very durable. I hold up well during tough times. I have an independent spirit underneath
my cooperative way of working with others.
20. I've been made stronger and better by difficult experiences.  I've converted misfortune into good luck and found benefits in bad experiences.

Scoring:
80 or higher very resilient!
65-80 better than most
50-65 slow, but adequate
40-50 you're struggling
40 or under seek help!

5 comments:

  1. Before answering the questions to the quiz, I would've immediately said I was one of the least resilient people I know. I guess I'm more resilient than I thought! Great questions, they really made me look at the definition of this word much closer and realize that I'm not only more optimistic than I first thought, but also a little tough ;-)

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  2. I think of you as very resilient!! Warmly,Karen

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  3. Thanks Karen for posting this quiz. I pretty much knew that I am very resilient, I've been through 10 yrs of my now 30yr old daughter living with cancer, but it was nice to have it proven to me on paper.

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  4. Carole, You are so welcome. Warmly, Karen

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