For a long time in my professional career, I have been interested in creating a blog, providing my insights into a subject that I feel connected too. And so, when I was asked to do one, I was delighted. I entered into exciting conversations with my peers thrashing out topic ideas and spent lots of my time thinking about & researching my subjects of choice.

Despite my enthusiasm, putting pen to paper was a struggle for me and I seemed to find every way to put it off. It was always glaring at me at the top of my to-do list, people were asking about how I was getting on with it (constantly I may add), but still, I was nowhere near starting it. Why was I putting off something that I so wanted to do and saw the value in? I crafted time in my diary to dedicate for my writing, I reminded myself of ‘Eat that Frog’, I applied the Pomodoro method but still nothing.

I realised that I was struggling to be vulnerable and lacking in some confidence in putting myself out there.

This, however, was not a surprise to me. I am self-aware and this has happened before. I have been fortunate enough to have had access to many psychometrics and they all say the same thing about me and my tendencies across various situations.

Belbin Team Roles describes:

“Resource Investigators thrive on the excitement of novelty, and whilst this allows them to respond quickly to new developments, their enthusiasm can fade as quickly as it arose”

Disc describes:

“she can easily become distracted, and does not deal well with projects that fail to hold her interest over the long term”

That said I am a highly engaged, motivated, and quality-driven individual with evidence throughout my career to back this up. What my lack of surprise told me was that I perhaps had become passively self-aware and in that fleeting moment of procrastination where I was struggling to write, my passive self-awareness meant that I was using excuses rather than flourishing. It was easier to tell myself “well you do this all the time”  rather than find something to create action. I needed a new strategy.

And so I was curious.

I completed my Be Talent Resilience Accreditation course in July this year and as part of my accreditation, my extremely supportive colleague Shona provided me with the feedback of my personal resilience profile.

Resilience as you will know has become an area of relevance right now and I am hugely passionate about this subject so it made sense to delve deeper and upskill in this area.

I truly believe it is vital for people to understand how they cope in times of challenge, what emotions they experience on their best and worst days to pick the best course of actions to get back on the right path.

And this is what this Be Talent tool does.

There are 9 resilience risks in total, these are described as your go-to responses in times of challenge. It came as no surprise to me again that mine are Impatient, Worried, and Impulsive. I can, if I am honest, experience these all in one moment and gave practical examples of when I had displayed these behaviours, but I wanted to change this.

There are also 9 resilience strengths, now these were what I was interested in, my way to put a positive spin on my times of challenge, to overcome these and grow taller. As I worked my way through each of the 9 strengths I struggled to clearly see what mine would be.

And then a surprise came.

In behaviours such as Calm, Composed, and Fearless, I found that my passive self-awareness was starting to unravel, and I was learning something new about myself.

My top Resilience strength as Confidence.

“Certain in their actions. Confident and convinced, they do not look to other people for feedback or assurance, trusting in their ability to make good decisions. On a good day, they will hold their ground and be unwavering when challenged. They feel confident about their abilities and present themselves and their ideas with impact. They deliver messages with authority and credibility”

This did not sound like me and I was struggling to see how this person which is  described above was going to my strategy to help me overcome a challenge. And not just in the challenge I found with creating my first article, but in all and any challenges that I will be sure to face.

And then my lightbulb came. I did have this in me, it’s been there all along but it is my responsibility to harness this confidence and rather than revert to my aforementioned resilience risks, pull on this strength to guide me. Thank you to Shona and Be Talent for teaching me this.

And so, therefore I have finally written this piece. I used my resilience strength of confidence to act, to put pen to paper to share my lessons.

1. Always be open to surprises, in yourself and others. Do not let passive self-awareness stand in your way.
2. Surround yourself with people who want you to succeed and keep you on your toes.
3. Find your own Resilience Strengths, they are invaluable.

Right, off to research my next topic now!  If you’d like to find out more about Be Talent, drop me or Shona an email and we’ll send you some more information.