GROWTH ENVIRONMENT MASTERY
To create your own growth, you must master your environment first.
Key Concept #6: Resilience.
Herbicides are chemical agents designed to kill specific plants, such as weeds or invasive vines. However, over time, some plants can develop resistance to these chemicals.
In a similar way, certain factors in daily life can poison your perception of yourself and your future. These “poisons” often come in the form of hurtful words, prejudice, and negative attitudes from others.
For example, being told that you're stupid, worthless, or destined to fail can deeply damage your self-image. Likewise, experiencing discrimination based on your skin color, beliefs, or ethnicity can also distort how you see yourself.
In these situations, it's essential to build resistance to this kind of poison by cultivating resilience.
We’ve mentioned this phrase before, but we’re revisiting it because it’s foundational to building resilience. Continue developing the mindsets, traits, qualities, and attitudes that will help you succeed—and remember:
How people view you is their problem.
Understand that people form opinions based on their own experiences, education (or lack of it), and social background. Their judgment of you reflects who they are, not who you are. You can’t control what others think or say, so don’t let it poison your self-image.
You Are Enough
Building Resilience: Connect and Make Your Life Meaningful
People will always influence your growth environment—either positively or negatively. In a positive environment, it's not only important to surround yourself with encouraging, kind, and supportive people, but also to build strong, meaningful relationships with them. These connections can significantly contribute to your emotional and mental resilience during difficult times.
In addition, strive to create meaning in your life every day. While goals like earning better grades or landing a good job are important, they don’t automatically give life meaning. You can make each day count by setting personal goals—such as being known for your kindness, encouraging others, becoming more understanding and forgiving, or practicing generosity.
Based on Resilience: Build skills to endure hardship, Mayo Clinic
Building Resilience: Learn from Experience, Remain Hopeful
Even if you have limited control over your external growth environment—for example, if you live in an abusive or harmful situation—there are still ways to build resilience. Here are two additional suggestions from the Mayo Clinic:
1. Learn from your experience.
Ask yourself: What can I do to avoid being in a similar situation in the future? Has this challenging experience helped me become more tolerant—or has it made me more critical? Have I discovered something new about myself, like realizing I’m stronger than I thought? Every life experience, whether good or bad, has the potential to teach us something valuable.
2. Always be hopeful.
Being hopeful means recognizing that your current situation is temporary. People, circumstances, and life itself can—and often do—change. Hope becomes a powerful defense against difficult external environments and is essential to developing resilience.
Building Resilience: Don’t Neglect Yourself, Be Proactive
There are two final ways the Mayo Clinic recommends building resilience:
Life can be hectic and stressful. Make time for yourself each day to step away from school or work and engage in activities that uplift you.
When faced with a challenging external environment, it might feel as though you're trapped or lack control. However, you have control over your reactions—both internally and externally—and you can take proactive steps to improve your situation. Don’t wait for problems or obstacles to resolve themselves. Look for small ways to enhance your external environment and overall well-being.
Metacognitive Goal
For this lesson and the next few days, we want you to become highly aware of your resilience in the face of setbacks or obstacles. Reflect on and write about times when you bounced back after a difficult situation.
Can you stay positive and push forward even when faced with adversity? Write about your most significant failure or mistake and how you dealt with it.
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
— Confucius