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PUBLISHED 16 November 2023

Empowering Resilience

Today, in Power to be Resilient, the final webinar of the 2023 Power Hour Skills Series, we were delighted to be joined by Richella Boggan, a highly experienced Executive Leadership and Performance Coach, and a member of the Irish Times Training Faculty.

Richella took us through the evolution of thinking around resilience, and how Adaptive Resilience can help us. We live in the age of mass distraction, and uncertainty is an ever-present element of our data-overloaded lives. Recognising and adopting Adaptive Resilience into our perspective can help us to be more present and in control of how we spend our energy across all areas of our lives.

Adaptive Resilience

Have you ever had the feeling that you're always on the run? The feeling that external forces, not you, are regulating your energy and focus? Well, you're not alone. The ideal state would be to thrive, rather than just survive - and there are tools available to help you to adopt Adaptive Resilience. 

Being open to building new skills (such as the ABLE Model, below) means that, while we recognise that we're 'chaos capable' we're also capable of retaining our energy for what's important to us - the things that help us to harness Eustress and work towards positive outcomes of our efforts, in our personal and work lives.

Is stress ever a good thing?

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as 'positive' stress.

Eustress is a form of stress that has a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance and well-being; it's found in the challenges you set yourself for the things you want to achieve, and which ultimately lead to a sense of being your best self.

Distress is what we mean by the usual use of 'stress' - its implications are negative. Acknowledging distress enables you to investigate whether the driver behind your actions is external and beyond your control, or if the driver is actually internal, in which case you can recognise it as potentially positive eustress.

Five key take-aways from today's webinar...

1: Be kind to yourself to build well-being - be aware that growth, repair and rest are elements of life that need to happen in order to create overall balance.

2:  Establish a balanced perspective and define what drives you to survival activities, rather than thriving.

3: Acknowledge, develop and refresh your self-care routines - physical, emotional, mental and social. 

4:  Look at yourself as a whole system, not just a collection of unrelated compartments that go into action in particular circumstances.

5:  Use the ABLE Model to become more present and regulate your energy:

• A = Awareness in the present time - this is time you won't get back, so try to make the best use of it.
• B = Balance growth, rest and repair - it's not possible to grow 100% of the time, so acknowledge your rest times.
• L = Learn to let go - we carry baggage from the past and fears for the future, so perspective is not an easy skill to develop, but it is a mighty one.
• E = Evaluate what's working - take an honest look at what drives you to survive and what allows you to thrive.

Catching up on today's webinar

If you couldn't join us for this webinar you can catch up on the session here.

The Power Hour Skills Series will return in 2024

We're delighted to let you know that the Power Hour Skills Series of free lunchtime webinars will return in 2024, with new presenters who will cover the hot topics in today's world of work.

Changing World of Work Podcast

For inspirational conversations that you can take with you anywhere, check out our Changing World of Work Podcast - available wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear us in conversation with world leaders as they tell us about their own experiences and some of the trends they're seeing as the world of work changes. Perfect for your commute or post-work walk!

We look forward to connecting with you soon.