I am the Queen of Resilience
When career or lifestyle changes happen, are you going to land on feet? When change is unexpected or unplanned, #resilience takes on even a more important aspect. What’s your plan?
My accountant once told me, Adele you’re the Queen of re-inventing yourself, you have a knack of creating great businesses. This is my topic for today.
Resilience: and here’s my story…
My name is Adele Anderson and I have been an entrepreneur for most of the past 30 years.
At 27 I owned and did the sales and marketing for a Pewter Manufacturing plant. I had just signed a National sales team when I got the call…. The warehouse burned to the ground. It was not only a shock, but I had lost “stuff” that I had stored there… what to do. Pick myself up off my you know what and move on. Find an opportunity of get a job!
What I did learn is insurance should be top of mind when you growing fast… I was new tho the game and under insured. So that meant move on…
So I “turned left” and with people that I had met during trade shows and so I opened an art gallery in Gastown Vancouver, filled with Whole sale product from my JV partners.
Sounded good, but the money just wasn’t flowing to be sustainable so when my lease came due, I shut the doors and started looking for my next adventure. No rose coloured glasses, move on…. that’s #Resilience!
I got an opportunity to partner in a restaurant! Cool. Over the next 2 years sales rose from $400/day to $8000/day we were rocking 1/4 million a month! RETIREMENT at 40 looked possible! But success has it’s drawbacks. I became soo successful that when my lease came due……. my landlord opened a restaurant………WHAM WHAM WHAM.
So now what to do? I needed a break and so took a trip to Asia… Sweet! I immersed myself in a strange wonderful new way of thinking. My trip was transformational and I came back not only renewed and rejuvenated, but ready to commit myself to a holistic career. I enrolled in a 4 year program and 2 more years of needed prerequisites. Before long my future seemed on track…..(resilience) but
Canadians are not used to paying for healthcare….. the financial side wasn’t paying off.
So I thought I I need to “turn left” (resilience) would combine my business and education and took my spa ideas, opening holistic style spas within high end hotels that ere built before the spa “boom”. I opened 7 spas in 2 years……… and 4 operated concurrently for the the last 4 years. but..
the world economic crisis of 2008 was a killer on tourism, I could stop the bleed 🙂 by the time I limed back home to the Sunshine coast I was pretty broke…… so now what?
Well I was home! Living full time with the love of my life, what could be better than that after 12 years in Whistler? Well work would help…
SO My husband willis was building us a new house, I looked at the “low hanging fruit” and said you think I can do short term cottage rental with the new house? He said sure, so off I went in sales and marketing mode. My executive 1 bedroom stylish waterfront home was stunning and the phone rang off the hook, with families of 5, 3 couples and I realized I had the wrong product……….
Now what…… I’m sitting over coffee a few weeks after my epiphany and said to Willis…. Honey were moving out of our house….. he said Oh yahhh where are we moving to? I said into the garage……. and were going to be there by Friday, because we are going to be booked! And so we were. booked solid and growing each year.
My friends and family tell me all the time.., Adele I am so amazed how you rework yourself and always find a way… I laugh and call myself the Queen of resilience!
So that was long but I wanted to share some of my life. So what is Resilience?
- the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
Example: When I was still operating my spa business, I knew change was coming; I wanted to land on my feet. So the year before change, I enrolled in 5 intense 4 day workshops to upgrade my holistic medical education. I wanted to make sure I was sharp as I re-entered my practice.
Example: Recently a neighbor lost a job that was a good fit, but then, instead of getting out there, just waited around for something to happen… I am not sure what was expected, but as the weeks progressed on, lack of funds, low self-esteem and depression set in.
Why is resilience important? Life is full of setbacks, long hours, and increased workloads, lost jobs, relationships, stressful marriage, disappointment and emotional turmoil. People that lack resilience flounder and suffer mental and physical unease.
Resilience cannot be under-estimated; it’s a key trait for survival! It means you can cope, overcome obstacles, and deal with the added stress. You got MOJO!!
More about Why it’s important? Lack of resilience; in the workplace; costs Canadian #Employers $20 Billion annually in health claims and further un-estimated billions in lost production, low employee morale, sick days, and employee mistakes resulting in lost client loyalty and manufacturing errors. #Resilience money factors are big business!
Why on the personal side? As soon as mental health suffers a cascade of biological events occur. Stress hormones flood the body and lower immune response. Infections, colds, flu and disease are more frequent. People suffering from serious diseases are under stress and that affects their healing.
How can you recognize how resilient you are? Here are two of histories resilient giants, how they face change head on and showed an immense amount of resilience when facing adversity. Steve Jobs, Mahatma Ghandi.
They are such different personalities, so what are the common personality traits? Hope, Optimism, Confidence and Resilience: Of the big four, resilience is created when you nurture the other three. Together they are considered “Psychological capital”.
Consider on the other hand any athlete with an injury. There is allot of chatter about injured athletes that fall into a deep depression and are at risk of suicide!
Resilience is searched for on job interviews, how you dealt with difficult situations in life. Employers are looking for people with “resilience assets”. I guess you getting the picture that resilience is important. Without it, we suffer mentally emotionally and in life.
So what makes resilient people different? No rose colored glasses wanted, take it on the chin, everything in clear light and assess the situation and figure out what is best to do.
Can you learn how to be more resilient? You can adopt an attitude about change! Each change is a new adventure an opportunity to thrive in something new! This could be the next great venture. Don’t think of it as bad luck but as opportunity!
Believe that you’ll land on your feet, Optimism shows confidence in yourself. STAY POSITIVE, positivity is necessary.
Don’t delay, figure it out, be flexible, retrain, change course, adapt. Rise to the challenge.
Read the paper, if you think life is rough, just take a look around, volunteer at a homeless shelter, children’s hospital and get perspective…. Be grateful for the things you do have.
Be kind to yourself, don’t self-sacrifice.
And keep your sense of humor. People like to be around happy people not mopers. Put a healthy sense of the “funnies” every morning put on your favorite comedy and lighten your load.
Positivity promotes the right kind of healthy hormones into your system and aids your mental well-being.
Get support from a supportive resilient person… get feedback. Your mentor will be gentle in their feedback as they analyze what went down. Learn to be a good non- judgemental listener to enable positive productive feedback.
As an employer can you build resilience? Yes watch for my blog: Hiring for Resilience, Nurturing adaptability in the workplace and Leadership to success. It’s smart business to keep a close eye on the pulse of any stress that is building. Nurture new employees by removing Additional stress, so they can get a handle on a current stressor, in all its glory.
And don’t forget your awesomeness! You can do this!
I’d love to help, call me if you need support
I am The Queen of resilience.
Adele Anderson
xo