Research suggests that people who overcome a series of small adverse events as children grow into resilient adults.
In fact, researchers have developed several tools to measure an individual’s resilience. One of them is the Resilience Factor Inventory, a 60-item questionnaire that is based on well-known resilience studies. This inventory assesses seven personality characteristics that contribute to resilience:
1. Being able to control your emotions when you’re under pressure.
2. Exercising control over your impulses and behaviors.
3. Accurately identifying the true cause of your adversity.
4. Believing you can solve problems and be successful.
5. Staying positive about the future while still being realistic.
6. Showing empathy toward others and developing relationships.
7. Thinking positively and embracing challenges and opportunities.
Other researchers have defined an even larger list of “character strengths”—meaning there are more ways to develop resilience. For example, one list, at viacharacter.org, takes 24 different strengths and breaks them down into six broad categories. You may find that you’re not big on teamwork, for example, but may have strong degrees of perseverance or kindness. Another source for inventories of your strengths and resilience is at talenttools.org.
Stress, too, affects resilience. “Our brain kicks into gear with stress hormones, like cortisol, to avoid real or perceived harm,” says Ken Nowack, PhD, a licensed organizational psychologist with Envisia Learning in Santa Monica, California. This is known as the fight-or-flight response, and it’s genetically preprogrammed in each of us. The more cortisol you produce when you’re stressed, the more vulnerable you are to resilience zappers like depression and anxiety. Dr. Terrill says devoting just 15 minutes a day to resilience skill-building—by using one of your existing strengths in a new and different way each time—can significantly boost your overall resilience and keep cortisol spikes at bay.
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