This article about Resilience comes courtesy Brook Kohlheim's weekly basketball email newsletter. Brook is relocating on her basketball journey, climbing the arduous coaching ladder on the women's circuit. She shares valuable information and has become a 'go to' resource.
The concept of resilience has grown exponentially recently. Terrific books are available including Resilience by Eric Greitens, Performing Under Pressure by Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry, and Stronger: Develop the Resilience You Need by Everly et al.
Here are some excerpts from the Harvard Business Review article. In our daily lives, we often need shortcuts to incorporate more concepts in less time.
The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be resilient and successful...And lack of recovery — whether by disrupting sleep with thoughts of work or having continuous cognitive arousal by watching our phones — is costing our companies $62 billion a year in lost productivity.
A resilient child is a well-rested one. When an exhausted student goes to school, he risks hurting everyone on the road with his impaired driving; he doesn’t have the cognitive resources to do well on his English test; he has lower self-control with his friends; and at home, he is moody with his parents. Overwork and exhaustion are the opposite of resilience.
The key to resilience is trying really hard, then stopping, recovering, and then trying again.
If you’re trying to build resilience at work, you need adequate internal and external recovery periods.
...you can take a cognitive break every 90 minutes to recharge your batteries.
I know that as a physician, time management is challenging. For example, yesterday I saw five patients in the hospital, nineteen in the office, and made innumerable phone calls to patients and families, other physicians, and insurance companies. I spent my 'lunch' refilling prescriptions and doing paperwork. According to this article by Achor and Gielan, there was no way I could perform at an optimal level. "All work and no play" makes for an inefficient life.