How Can We Build Resilience? Start With Small Daily Promises

Resilience is not the same as never struggling

I used to think resilient people were simply better at coping. Now I think resilience is much more ordinary than that.

So how can we build resilience in ordinary life? I think it starts with small actions we can actually repeat.

It can look like doing the next useful thing even when the day is not going to plan.

As women get older, many of us can look back on decades of caring, working, adapting and solving problems. Yet it is surprisingly easy to focus on what feels harder now.

I like to think of resilience as something we practise.

Every time you keep a small promise to yourself, you create a piece of evidence: I said I would do this, and I did.

That might be going for a twenty-minute walk when your head feels full. It might be making a proper lunch, asking for help, saying no, lifting some weights or going to bed a little earlier.

None of those actions makes you invincible. That’s not the goal.

The goal is to build trust in yourself.

You do not need to feel resilient before you act. Sometimes the action comes first, and the confidence follows afterwards.

So rather than asking, ‘What huge change do I need to make?’, try asking:

For me, that connects closely with self trust and with making helpful actions easier through habit stacking.

What is one promise I can keep to myself today?