Over the past two weeks, we’ve contemplated a lot around what it means to be resilient, especially for women. Attending and presenting at the 12th Women’s Leadership and Empowerment Conference, (WLEC2021) also gave me another full panoramic view of what this means for global women from all walks of life.
Resilience is a vast concept and goal. We all need to understand, embrace and manage the changes it requires. The Bounce Back Project describes resilience as “our ability to bounce back from the stresses of life” and states that it’s about learning to thrive in spite of the stress.
We have so much more to learn about ourselves. Listening to my fellow WLEC speakers and attendees, and most recently a Teal Talks interview of Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO of Thrive Global and Ellyn Shook, Chief Leadership & HR Office, Accenture, emphasizes how high the climb continues to be. As our journey continues, we know the pathway can become steeper and harder before it gets better. We are still defining what it takes to create desperately needed changes; in fact, we are demanding change. When you add this past year to the overwhelm, it has become an even more toxic mix.
But not only have we endured much; we have also understood much. The conversations and discussions surrounding what matters to our individual and collective well-being have increased exponentially. We recognize that companies have short-changed themselves, as they learn that respecting and supporting the needs of employees to fuel up as they climb, is key to reaching the summits of both business and personal success.
Self-care, awareness, mindfulness and purpose, have become the evolving values we strive to incorporate into our daily practices to thrive at home and at work. Values that ultimately lead to well-being.
In my own work, we witness women experience an empowering weekend retreat or workshop. The challenge is the follow-up. And, as a result, we have adjusted our delivery model to overcome the gap between what they learn and commit to during our programs and the actions they consistently take thereafter. It’s the vision we hold, the attitudes we embrace and what we do that allows us to stay the course and reach the goals. It takes time to incorporate essential changes on a daily basis; and, as we say on the mountain, take one step at a time.
There is great value in the phrase we’re in this together. We need to be; because in my experience it has always taken a team to climb a mountain.
Keep moving …
