Highlighting achievements: Resilient Move blog – Laura
Writing a blog is a first for me, but as a proud co-leader of the Resilience Revolution in Blackpool, I have taken up the challenge to give something new a try. My name is Laura and I have been part of the Resilience Revolution for 3 years. I’m proud of how it values the contribution and voices of everyone and encourages us all to share our learning. As part of my role, I have contributed to work locally in Blackpool, but also as part of our bigger resilience social movement alongside Boingboing and the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice at the University of Brighton. These links have seen me travel and present learning alongside academics and researchers in Marseille and Lisbon to name a few!
So, this blog is going to focus on one of the Resilient Moves from something we use every day (if not hour!) in the Resilience Revolution – the Resilience Framework. There are 42 Resilient Moves on the Resilience Framework, they are like steps, big or small, that people can make to help build resilience. During these really difficult times, some might seem more helpful than others, but we are all unique and so different things will be helpful to different people. The Resilient Move I have been encouraged and supported to make recently is ‘Highlight Achievements’, and that’s what I am going to share some reflections about here.
We as people can often be blind to our greatest strengths, and highlighting our achievements may be very difficult. Achievements can be highly personal and grow over time – securing awards, promotions and other acknowledgements of achievement that you can then be proud of. I have often taken on situations that were scary and out of my comfort zone, and that is because they offered the promise of new learning opportunities and excitement.
Achievement is not just about the happy, shiny things – it is also about withstanding tough times and challenging situations. Resilience demonstrated under pressure is also an achievement and in many ways is just as important as the more obvious markers of success.
Recently I have been highlighting my achievement of being awarded the Highly Commended Apprentice of the Year at the Blackpool and The Fylde College awards. I am delighted about, and very grateful that, all my hard work throughout the year has been recognised in such a special way. When you achieve something to be proud of, it’s rewarding to be able to make changes, stand back from the process and reflect on how you reached your goal, but it’s also very important to celebrate your achievements, as they are the building blocks that enable us to grow.
One of the things I have learnt during my journey with the Resilience Revolution is that if you want to reach your goals, do not set too many at one time; as you can become easily overwhelmed and you won’t be able to focus. For me this resulted in me avoiding the building blocks I needed to reach my successes and achieve my goals. When we set ourselves too many goals we often forget the reason why they became our goals in the first place, and why that achievement is important to us. The way I manage this is by writing ‘to do’ lists, or mind mapping my goals, to see exactly what steps I need to take to reach them. By choosing to focus on two or three at a time enables me to organise myself, see what action I need to take to achieve my goal, and plan out my future. In fact these are a few more Resilient Moves!
True to the learning culture of the Resilience Revolution, each year we host a learning event to look back at the journey, achievements and learning undertaken. Last year we held a ‘Big Resilience Get Together’ event, and everyone with an interest in mental health, resilience and systems change was able to join us! Spread over three days, with each day taking a particular focus, a range of keynote speakers, workshops and participants were able to find out more about the Resilience Revolution and our ‘Changing the Odds’ campaigns. Allowing ourselves to take the time to highlight our achievements and celebrate our success each year has enabled us to share our special moments, and gain more ideas on what works and what doesn’t work so well for young people and professionals. Most importantly, highlighting our achievements has encouraged us to continue working together towards a shared goal.
Listing achievements and accomplishments can be helpful when applying for a new job or to look back on when you are struggling to see your own self-worth. At the Resilience Revolution, we apply a definition of resilience that is ‘beating the odds, whilst also changing the odds’. This means that as well as helping individuals to overcome difficulties, we also look at how systems might need to change to make things fairer in the first place. My apprenticeship, with or without the recent Award, has given me lots of opportunities to try new things and add to my list of accomplishments. As part of our work in Blackpool, we are trying to encourage more employers to value apprenticeships, and to recognise a wide range of achievements that this may offer.
My greatest achievements are often directly related to my greatest challenges, and I am very proud of the fact that I have the tools to pick myself up when things have gone wrong along my journey. To do this I used the strategies and steps I had already learnt when overcoming different challenges and achieving previous goals. What has been a great help is using the Resilience Framework as a daily reminder of the ‘ordinary magic’ steps we can take to accomplish our achievements and reach our successes.
Throughout our journeys, we will experience days where we feel like we’re moving in the opposite direction to where we would like to go. Every one of us will experience days like that. It’s completely normal and to be expected.
Please remember, commit to being kind to yourself.
When these days come up, just give yourself the permission to have “off” days. It’s okay to feel unmotivated, down or off-track. This, like all days, will pass. Tomorrow is another day to put on your positivity glasses and start again. Everything will be okay.
Challenge – make a Resilient Move!
Show us a photo that says/means “achievement” to you; something tangible you’ve created, a view from a journey you’ve completed, the starting point of a journey not yet made, or a project you hope to finish. Tweet them to us @bb_resilience and @HSBLACKPOOL. Let’s inspire each other to highlight and celebrate our achievements together!
