Resilience Is Not About Bouncing Back

Episode Number

49

I talk about the pressure so many of us feel to fill every spare moment with work, and the quiet but important choice to do something different instead. It became a real test of boundaries, self-trust and what resilience actually asks of us.

In this episode, I’m reflecting on resilience from a deeply personal angle, after a sudden change of plans gave me an unexpected week back.

I talk about the pressure so many of us feel to fill every spare moment with work, and the quiet but important choice to do something different instead. It became a real test of boundaries, self-trust and what resilience actually asks of us.

I also unpack why I no longer think resilience is about bouncing back. As human beings, we do not return to some original state after pressure or disruption.

We carry experience, emotion and learning with us. This is really about becoming stronger, wiser and more able, and recognising that rest is not a distraction from performance, it is part of what makes it possible.

Highlights:

(02:32) – Why bouncing back is the wrong way to think about resilience
(03:31) – A more honest definition of resilience under pressure
(05:00) – The pull of all the things I thought I should do instead
(06:08) – Why I chose rest over work, and what that gave me
(08:59) – The fantasy that pushing harder will make us perform better
(10:00) – The pivot point that showed me my boundaries had really changed

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