Emotional resilience is a concept that applies to both individuals and organizations. We find it hard to understand how some people can maintain their zest for life and remain healthy in the face of adversity, while others can easily despair, retreat and give up in the face of adversity. At the beginning of our careers, we used to try to find answers to these issues while reading research on stress. Our precedents were historical figures such as İsmet İnönü and Winston Churchill, who lived long and healthy lives despite carrying not only the problems of their own families but also the emotional burdens of their country’s struggle for existence. “Some people are known to be more resilient to stress. For example, many statesmen who carried the responsibility and destiny of an entire nation on their backs lived both long and healthy lives. The most striking examples are İsmet İnönü and Winston Churchill. Both İnönü and Churchill accepted the responsibilities and struggles they undertook as part of their lives and managed not to reflect the difficulties on their own bodies. These strong personalities saw real wars as a chess game. However, many people perceive a chess game as a real battle.
Preparation for life is not limited to overcoming educational exams. Emotional resilience or resilience is a trait that only develops as one is tested, challenged and pushed out of one’s comfort zone. There have been researchers who have suggested that some people are born with it, but it is a trait that is largely developed over a lifetime. Because resilience plays a much more important role in life success than diplomas, experience and professional know-how. The most concrete example of this is the existence of people who, despite coming from very disadvantaged environments, do not get stuck in the difficulties they face, but gain many competencies in the process of struggle and enrich their lives and become successful.
People with high emotional resilience have four key characteristics.
Acceptance of reality: Most people who write about emotional resilience put optimism at the top. However, this is extremely misleading. For example, Jim Stokdale, who spent eight y