You may be feeling stuck and are at a point where you realise you need to find your way to a better you. Let me just tell you this: you are not alone. As a coach I have met several people that are in the same position as you. You have become accustomed to the status quo. Maybe you feel like you are stuck inside a loop that doesn’t really satisfy your personal or professional needs and aspirations. This means that you need to start working towards making the necessary lifestyle or career changes. It will push you to the next level and get you out of the metaphorical rut.

Through this blog, we will be delving deeper into different ways through which you can find your way to a better you. We will look into ways to build resilience and cultivate positive habits. We will also look at identifying ways to unleash your inner potential. Additionally, we will tell you how coaching can successfully help you achieve all of these things to ultimately guide you to find your way to a better you.

Find your way by building resilience

In order to find your way to a better version of yourself you need to build your resilience. Let us first start by understanding the meaning of resilience. A resilient person is someone that has mastered the ability to bounce back when faced with challenging situations or setbacks. They are individuals that can maintain emotional wellbeing and remain effective even if facing stress or trauma.

Now that we know what resilience means, we need to understand why it is so important to us as human beings. Resilience is a crucial factor that enhances your mental and emotional strength. It allows you to better navigate through life’s obstacles more effectively. Dr Kenneth Ginsburg, a renowned paediatrician in Adolescent Medicine and a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, came up with what are known as the 7 C’s. He explains that to be resilient, you need to build: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control.

Dr Ginsburg’s 7 C’s adapted for adults

While Dr Ginsburg talk about building resilience in children and youths, I believe that building and strengthening resilience should be ageless. Applying Dr Ginsburg’s 7 C’s to ourselves, as adults, we can build resilience by:

• Ensuring you don’t undermine your own competence, and therefore, allow yourself to fail and get back up again. You will not always get it right the first time. However, you will realise that through that failure, you might have learnt what it takes to do it right the next time around.

• Facing life with the kind of confidence that allows you to navigate the world, think outside the box and recover.

• Building connections with other people. Whether these are your colleagues or by joining an organisation. This allows you to develop your network, flesh out ideas and develop creative solutions through experiences.

• Defining your character by constantly sharpening your sense of right and wrong and committing yourself to integrity.

• Doing your part by giving our contribution to the wellbeing of others. Think of volunteering with an NGO or doing small things that help the community. This does not only lead you to receive gratitude from others. It helps you also understand that there is no shame in turning to others when you are in need.

• Developing the right coping mechanisms that allow you to deal with challenges logically and coherently. These mechanisms allow you to steer clear from dangerous quick fixes that might come out from moments of stress.

• Establishing a sense of control by ensuring that you understand privileges and respect. This by taking responsibility where due and making wise choices.

Resilience doesn’t just come in handy when facing personal challenges

When we learn how to be resilient as human beings, that resilience will surely come in handy when we are facing potential challenges within our workplace or businesses. While agreeing that skills that allow you to recover from adversity are important personal development journeys to take, an article published last year by McKinsey and Company focused on how such skills also help businesses and leaders thrive in turbulent situations. In McKinsey’s September 2022 Global Survey on economic conditions, one can read how “geopolitical tensions, inflation, and a gloomy global economic forecast are top of mind for CEOs.” Therefore, also within businesses and leaders, there was a shift in focus on building resilience.

While on a personal level, resilience means that you are able to bounce back fast when facing challenges, according to McKinsey and Company, in businesses “resilience means dealing with adversity and shocks, and continuously adapting for growth.” Therefore, organisations that are truly resilient do not just bounce back better than before, they manage to thrive while venturing what could be hostile environments. If a business is truly resilient during challenging times, then there’s no holding back its success once the turbulence is over!

The article by McKinsey goes on a further step and links how agile a business is to the strength of their resilience. Let us now look into some of the things that make a business and its leaders truly agile and resilient:

• A dynamic decision-making process – this means that business leaders understand that different decisions might be best taken by different individuals. This avoids unnecessary delays and rigid approval processes in turbulent periods.
• Effective meetings and strong time management – this means making sure that meetings have a scope and that this scope is reached within a respectable timeframe. Say no more to endless meetings that end with setting another date or time to continue the discussion.
• A future-looking mentality – this means that a company is able to future-proof the organization by ensuring there are the right policies, forecasts and team members to push the business forward.

Find your way by unleashing your inner potential

The worst thing that you can do when you feel stuck is tell yourself: “I cannot do it”. During a chat with a woman present at the Global Woman Summit of 2023, International Keynote Speaker, and Bestselling Author Simon Alexander Ong, asked “What’s the biggest challenge you have overcome?”. “Quite a few,” she replied. He then explained that given she has overcome challenges before, she has within her the energy, resources, and willpower necessary to simply overcome. Then he asked, “So what is stopping you with the next one?” To which, she replied, “me”.

Let’s admit it, we have all found ourselves believing that we’re not able to overcome some challenge or another. The truth is, that when you face a challenge, one of the first things you’re going to feel is doubt. “Can I face and overcome this challenge?” The answer to this question is usually a strong and hard “YES.” Through his book Energize, Ong speaks about the greatest way to overcome self-doubt in moments like these; take action. Taking action cures fear and self-doubt. “If you are doubting yourself, take the tiniest step,” he went on to say.

Looking at this using a practical example, if you want to learn how to swim and stay afloat when you go to the beach, you need to start by getting into the water. Then you practice in shallow water, where you cannot possibly drown. When more confident, you then venture out into deeper waters. Now apply this to any challenge you are faced with. Start with what comes easier to you and then push your boundary. Slowly build your confidence to face the challenge that has been thrown at you.

Find your way through coaching

As much as you would love to be able to be your own motivator and cheerleader, sometimes, you are going to need the support of someone that is external to us to help us through challenging times. This is where coaches come in. A coach helps you open your own doors to progress in life. Whether in your career or simply in your day-to-day life. They use an intuitive, agile, and energising styles of facilitation and frameworks that help notice mindsets and shift them. Additionally, coaches challenge assumptions and broaden one’s perspectives, assisting them in understanding better the system in which they operate.

Do you want to understand how to better face the challenges brought about by being stuck in status quo? Coaching might help you achieve your goals.

This article was adapted from an article written by Liana Naudi, an HR Professional in Human Resources Management, Employer branding and coaching, with 8 years of experience in the industry.

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