Resilience Practices

In the words of Winston Churchill, “When you're going through hell, keep going.†Britt, Shen, Sinclair, Grossman, and Klieger (2016) note several traits (e.g., individual resources), environmental factors (e.g., unit, family, and community resources), and processes (e.g., seeking help from others) that help individuals to “keep going†in the face of adversity. I would argue that the third category, which I would suggest be expanded to practices, is the most important going forward. Unfortunately, psychologists often tend to focus the most effort on the first two: traits and environmental factors, which often leave individuals feeling helpless because both are largely outside of their control. In the face of adversity, people instead want to know, “What can I do to keep going?†This is not to say that traits or environmental factors are not important. They are. However, the most powerful work in resilience will promote personal agency (Bandura, 2001) and confidence in one's ability to develop resilience (e.g., a growth mindset; Dweck, 2006).