Resilience Reflections

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”- Albert Einstein

One can’t achieve goals without making mistakes, stumbling a bit, and learning something new along the way. Challenging ourselves to ‘stretch’ allows us to become better, stronger, gain practical skills, and grow.

Just like we build and grow muscles by stretching them to lift more weight and do more repetitions followed by periods of rest, the same is true when gaining new skills and knowledge. Stretch goals push beyond the boundaries of what is expected and offers us opportunity for growth. Consider an organizational subject matter expert (SME) who is often viewed as the more knowledgeable person to go to for complex issues and decision-making. However, being the expert can lead to lack of learning and growth.  Here are a few tips to grow and challenge yourself:

1. When exploring solutions with others you may have ideas that are out of date or don't take the full picture into account, offer an open-ended question that leads to more discussion around the subject at hand. For example, “... that’s been my experience. You may have more recent knowledge about this issue. What do you think?”

2. Be curious about new ideas and technology. Ask others share new perspectives and explore pros and cons. Ask what could go wrong,  what could go right, and what else needs to be considered? For example, I have yet to challenge myself with new AI technology.

3. Continuously solicit feedback from people at all levels of an organization. This helps create dialogue around potential weak areas or 'blind spots', as well as discussion around opportunities to learn something new.

We do not always have to set stretch goals; we also need time to rest and recover. Setting smaller, incremental goals can serve as steppingstones to a greater goal. This can help balance the need for both growth and renewal as one can not sustain challenges all the time, especially after significant professional or personal changes. Being intentional about when to stretch yourself and when to step back and rest is important. Remember to block some time to do nothing, engage in activities that re-vitalize you, and reward yourself while working toward those more challenging goals.

 “If we want to live a Wholehearted life, we have to become intentional about cultivating sleep and play, and about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth.” - Brene Brown