The word resilience is being used more frequently to describe companies, urban areas, and people. It is appearing in the news and social media, and being used by leaders and politicians. Organizations that are resilient tend to survive and continue to generate profit.
What is does it mean?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines resilience as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” It also describes it as “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.”
It’s synonyms include: strength of character, strength, toughness, hardiness, adaptability, buoyancy, flexibility, ability to bounce back. It’s antonyms are vulnerability and weakness.
Who is talking about it?
G20 Adopt List of Principles to Strengthen Economic Resilience
U.S housing, factory data underscore economy’s resilience
Report: City Resilience to Climate Change
Five steps to improving grit and resilience
What are others saying about resilience?
“There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
“My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.”