Doing Difficult Things to Build Resiliency

In the effort to build resiliency, one must do difficult things from time to time. Your boundaries should be pushed, and you should be stressed in a healthy way. Most of our lives in this modern age have been built around the idea of making things easier. Which is not always a bad thing. Though, I do believe this can be taken to an extreme, resulting in some folks being rendered incapable of functioning in anything but the most perfect of conditions.

Merriam Webster says resiliency is: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change. And that adversity is: a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune. Or, in short, being able to deal with life in man’s fallen state. An issue that plagues everyone on earth.

But why go out of your way to do a difficult task, to challenge yourself? What good is this going to do? I think it helps in many ways. It allows you to appreciate the blessings in your life. When the unexpected happens, it allows you to still function, as you know you can and will still survive if a little hardship confronts you. It helps you grow as a person, and you know what you can do and have done, giving you the confidence to face adversity in the future. Frankly, the more practice you get at this skill, the better you become. It’ll allow you to become a proficient problem solver.

The military incorporates, or at least did, resiliency into its training. This might seem cruel to the uninitiated; however, it allows them to build a force that can stand and address the ever evolving situation they find themselves in both a work and in life. A force that lacks this ability will not long stand, as Murphy’s Laws of Combat states: a plan will never survive first contact, and that has held true in my experience. So it would only make sense to have your people prepared and able to function at the highest degree possible in this environment.

The book Jedediah Smith: No Ordinary Mountain Man, by: Barton Barbour, talks about Smith marveling at a tribe in the north-central region of California. This tribe lived in a “garden of eden.” Every possible resource that one could want was available in their area. Plenty of food growing year round, temperate weather, raw materials, and resources everywhere. Smith expected they would have been enterprising with the resources they were blessed with. What he found, however, is that they lacked almost any skills or motivation whatsoever. They didn’t have to sustain life, and as a result, they didn’t. Smith was a man who worked rather hard, and this way of thinking was foreign to him…it makes me wonder how he would look most modern Americans.

So why is this important in this day and age? I would suggest that everyone’s life has gotten more difficult in the last three years. There seems to be a combination of things affecting people differently. We’ve seen lockdowns, supply chain issues, money not going nearly as far (and the petro-dollar beginning to collaspe), increased crime, trust being eroded away from previously trusted intuitions. These things are building the resiliency of some and showing what the lack of resiliency does in others. Unfortunately, the issues of an empire in decline will only get worse if history is to be an example.

So how do you incorporate this concept into your life? You need to find something that will be difficult for you to accomplish, but achievable. For instance my daughter wanted to camp in the snow without a tent this winter. Was it a challenge, certainly, but she accomplished her goal and found it to be less intimidating and confidence boosting.

I ran a long-distance mountain race last summer with the simple goal of finishing the race. When you look at how little I trained for this event, it was quite the accomplishment. Looking forward, though, I will set a goal of a specific timeframe and train harder. If I can follow through, then this is where growth can happen.

In our Training and Selection Program for the mountain team in the Border Patrol, we had two weeks of doing tasks without knowing what the next task would be, with both mental and physical challenges. The greatest difficulty was the unknown and always is.

Military training is conducted the same way, through a combination of difficult tasks but more importantly through the unknown. If you can begin to break the fear of the unknown, your resiliency will grow more than through any other way I have seen.

In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul advises, 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finding peace, though Jesus, is the most effective method. God knows the beginning and end. He’s willing to provide help if you’re willing to take it. He will build you through trials if you need it as well. The good book is full of examples of people who face difficulty or challenges and are helped through to grow and learn.

James 1: 2-12
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in his ways. 9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the fields he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. 12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Building resiliency might seem silly at first, but the benefits will far exceed the cost. It will prepare you for the times ahead, boast confidence, build faith, and frankly give you interesting stories to share.

God Bless

-Joe