Resilience is the ability to stay motivated in the pursuit of one’s goals, overcoming obstacles and resisting against stress. It is thought that the term resilience comes from the Latin verb “resalio”, which means to jump, and it is associated with the image of jumping back on an overturned boat in search of salvation. This is the opposite of giving up, and is an attitude which focuses on resistance at all costs.
A resilient person is someone who firmly believes in their objectives, and is prepared to use everything that they have to achieve them, challenging and overcoming adversity and unforeseen obstacles along the way. Perhaps not everyone is aware that humankind was built to be resilient and to be able to live with stress and frustration. After all, if we remember that we are the descendants of those who have survived famines, wars and predators, we might realise that being resilient is completely normal.
Resilience is essentially a positive attitude that allows us to see negative events as temporary hurdles which can be overcome; it allows us to believe in our strengths and in our ability to control external factors, it makes us see obstacles and struggles as challenges and enables us to hold on to hope. This is a natural gift that we have within us, but which unfortunately, our society tends to smother, leading us to never fully take responsibility for our actions, but instead, to simply complain. We are the only living organisms who have a third option when it comes to external stimuli, besides adapting or dying, and that is complaining! Human beings are, in fact, the only species that practice self-pity.
We can become much more resilient than we think,and to this end, sport is the best context in which to practice, allowing us to tap into a healthy blend of sacrifice and trust in our own abilities. Sport is a metaphor for life, where our mental attitude is just as important as our physical state.
