GROWTH ENVIRONMENT MASTERY
To create your own growth, you must master your environment first.
Key concept 6: Resilience.
There are herbicides, which are chemical poisons designed to kill certain plants, whether they are weeds or an overgrowth of vines. Some plants become resistant.
In a similar way, there are factors in your daily life that can poison your view of yourself and your future. These poisons often manifest in the form of hurtful words, prejudices, and negative attitudes from others.
For instance, if someone tells you that you are stupid, useless, or won’t amount to much, it can poison your self-perception. Experiencing prejudice based on the color of your skin, your beliefs, or your ethnicity can also negatively impact how you see yourself.
In such situations, it's crucial to build resistance to this type of poison by developing resilience.
We've already mentioned this phrase once, but we're revisiting this concept because it forms the basis for building resilience. Continue to develop the mindsets, traits, qualities, and attitudes that will allow you to be successful and remember:
How people view you is their problem.
Realize that due to their own experience, education, or lack thereof, and social background, they have formed their opinion of you not because of who you are, but because of who they are. You can't control what or how others think of you, so don't let it poison your thinking.
You are enough.
Building Resilience: Connect and make your life meaningful.
People will always impact your growth environment, either positively or negatively. In a positive environment, it's not only important to surround yourself with positive, encouraging, kind, and supportive people but also to cultivate strong, meaningful relationships with them. These strong connections can contribute to your emotional and mental resilience during difficult times.
Additionally, strive to create meaning in your life. every day. While goals like achieving better grades or securing a good job are significant, they don't automatically provide life with meaning. You can make every day count by setting goals such as being known as a kind person, encouraging others, becoming more understanding and forgiving, or being more generous.
Based on Resilience: Build skills to endure hardship, Mayo Clinic
Building Resilience: Learn from experience, remain hopeful.
Even if you don’t have as much control over your external growth environment, for instance, if you live in an abusive environment, here are two additional suggestions from the Mayo Clinic to build resilience:
Learn from your experience. What will you need to do to avoid being in the current situation in the future? Because of the challenging situation, have you learned to be more tolerant? Or does your situation cause you to be more critical? Have you discovered something about yourself? That you’re stronger than you thought? Either way, you can always learn something from every situation, good or bad, that you experience in life.
Related to this is point two: Always be hopeful. Being hopeful means understanding that everything is temporary. You recognize that things can change. People, circumstances, and life can and will change. So, hope becomes a robust defense against difficult external growth environments and is essential for developing resilience.
Building Resilience: Don’t neglect yourself, be proactive.
There are two final ways Mayo Clinic recommends that you can build resilience.
Life can become hectic and stressful. Dedicate a bit of 'me' time each day to detach from school or work and engage in activities that uplift you.
When confronted with a challenging external growth environment, it may seem like you're trapped or lack control. However, you not only have control over your reactions, both internally and externally, but you can also take positive steps to enhance your situation. Don't wait for problems or obstacles to resolve themselves. Identify even small ways to improve your external growth environment and overall situation.
Metacognitive Goal
For this lesson and the next few days, we want you to become very aware of your resilience when facing setbacks or obstacles. Recall and write about times you bounced back after a difficult situation or scenario.
Can you stay positive and push forward even when faced with adversity? Write about your most significant failure or mistake and how you handled it.
“Life is very interesting…in the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.”
- Drew Barrymore