Positive Resilience.

I was recently asked to contribute an article for a magazine and the topic was resilience. I was surprised because I thought it would be on anything else but resilience. We have heard a lot about resilience over the last two years and its cousins agility, ambiguity, change, and so on. I associate resilience with the covid pandemic because that was the gospel that was preached hard in that season and we needed it to get through that crazy period.

So when a global coach asked me to contribute to her company magazine on how I have been resilient this season I was both honored and a little intrigued. Indulge me here kidogo folks for I want us to explore what resilience looks like when we are not fighting for our lives. Though with fuel at almost 200 bob, we are in a sense fighting for our lives.

Resilience is defined as the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. And that’s how life was during the pandemic. Things are looking up now as far as survival is concerned. We can breathe easy, literally though our pockets still need a mask to prevent our earnings from disappearing as taxes and the cost of living rises fast like the covid infection rates two years ago.

I have often said here that my biggest regret was being a victim of my own success. Past success blinded me to future success. And yet the best time to transition from one season to another is when we are doing well. Quitting at the top as the popular quote goes. Do we need to be resilient when things are better? Do we need to kaza when doing well? This is me trying to approach life positively despite the prevailing harsh economic times.

If I may twist the definition of resilience hapo juu. Do we or should we have the capacity to withstand success without losing our focus and going off track? I once saw a funny meme on Instagram. Someone was warning us not to brag about how morally upright we are until we get money. Poverty hides a lot of shortcomings but when one is loaded (rich) their true colors show. I saw some truth in that meme which makes me wonder how resilient I am when things are going my way. Does increased prosperity also lead to an increase in bad manners? I admire wealthy people (both socially and materially) who put effort to remain anonymous, helpful, and humble. That’s what I call positive resilience. The capacity to withstand success without losing our minds.

Why do we easily lose focus when success shows up? some of us get more challenged by success. aim for greater heights and achieve what few will. That’s usually the smaller percentage that I want to be part of. The majority of us get swallowed up by the comforts of initial achievements and the resilience (the capacity to withstand success in this case) to remain focused goes out the window. It is then just a matter of time that we end up victims of our own success.

I feel guilty about this sometimes when I am busy doing the good work I have longed to do.  I spend less time preparing, I read less and find myself back in my old ways of thinking and approach to life. That’s not good. Folks, when we get our foot off the progress peddle and just freewheel down the road, we run a higher risk of crashing. We should be more alert with both our hands on the steering wheel when our lives are picking up speed. The ability to maintain a high speed without losing control is what wins the race. That’s my picture of positive resilience, partly influenced by the recently concluded Safari rally in Vashas (Naivasha) hehe…

Folks when we remain focused even as our dreams come true then somehow it gets easier to prepare for what’s next. Remember opportunity finds the prepared. By all means, let us enjoy our success along the way. I’m a big advocate of celebrating small wins but maybe the internal growth we cultivated during covid should continue even now. ‘Addicted to self-improvement ‘ as a pal’s status reads. May your labors not be in vain folks. And when the fruit of those labors appears as it surely will, please enjoy it by all means but remember to eat with your mouth closed (don’t show off)  hehe…