Every year brings new obstacles and challenges. According to the well-known scholar, Ariana Grande (if you read my previous blog post, you can see I take a lot of advice from her), there are ones that teach us love, ones that teach us patience, and ones that teach us pain. We must adapt. We must be resilient, and increase our ability to bounce back from bad luck or just unpredictable changes in our lives.

For example, everyone at LMD needed to practice resilience during the recent government shutdown, which greatly affected some of our biggest clients, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard, EPA, and the Small Business Administration. Through the power of teamwork—and our shared objective of always keeping our clients’ best interests in mind—we adjusted to this temporary bump in the road and kept projects moving. In a tough situation like a shutdown, resilience is about being there for our clients, persevering, making a difference, and being the change.

There are many paths to becoming more resilient, but it starts with working on yourself. What do you need to do to be stronger in the face of change and more adaptable? Here are some ways you can train yourself to be more resilient this year:

  1. Take Things Day by Day Guess what? You will always have a to-do list and your inbox will never be empty. Make a solid effort to get things done, but don’t jampack your day just because you can—you’ll burn out and inevitably make promises to yourself and others that you can’t realistically keep.
  2. Strive for Balance I’m just gonna say it: Work life balance is a myth. A better approach? Take small steps to get more balance in your life overall. Make an effort to get away from the computer, look around, go outside (I KNOW—the horror!), have meaningful discussions about things other than work, and, in general, just lighten up.
  3. Communication Remains Key If you’re concerned or worried about an aspect of your life, whether at work or at home, be sure to communicate with your coworkers or your loved ones about it. They can help you through it just by listening and affirming your feelings.
  4. Set Goals for Yourself and the Company “New year, new you,” right? Make that actually ring true. Dig up those resolutions you wrote on New Year’s Eve—or if you don’t make resolutions, use a different approach to setting goals. Think ahead to December 31, 2019. What do you want to be able to say you achieved this year, personally and professionally?
  5. Be Willing to Learn from Your Successes and Failures At some point this year, there will be setbacks and mishaps. You’ll “love” and you’ll “lose” (okay, we’re almost done with the lyrical references). Try your best to learn from your experiences and show your resilience.
  6. Take Risks Volunteer to take on new projects and tasks that push you outside of your comfort zone. What was “comfortable” to you in 2018 might not be what is best for you. (Anyone ever been in a bad relationship?)
  7. Learn Something New If your company or organization offers training programs for its employees, take advantage of them! It might take time, but you’ll be so glad you did it (plus its on their dime. Getting paid to learn? If only schools caught on…). It’ll make you much more marketable not only for your company, but your own brand. Just make sure you stick with it, unlike that January gym routine that you lost faith in after a week. (Totally not speaking from personal experience here).

Here’s what LMDers have to say about building their resilience this year:

  • “Resilience is all about remembering that most things in life are subject to change or moving in a new direction, and likely will.”—Irma
  • “It might sound like something out of an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode, but this year I’m determined to be more joyful. If I can find the joy even in tough circumstances, I’ll become more resilient.”—Kristen  
  • “My goal is to add to our team of developers this year so that we can be more resilient when it comes to meeting the needs of our website clients. With more resources, we can take on more projects and maintain our high-quality standards.”—Jason
  • “This year, I will aim to make every experience a learning opportunity. Whether these are good or bad, I’ll understand myself and the world around me a lot better, and I’ll grow from these experiences and become more resilient.”—Chanda
  • “Raising two teenagers is putting my resilience to the test—in a good way. I feel like I can tackle any challenge!”—Holly
  • “To me, resilience means letting go of the things I can’t control and focusing on what I can.”—Nic

How will you be more resilient in 2019? Let us know!