Instilling resilience in young people is crucial not only for academic success, but as a fundamental life skill.
So what can be done to champion resilience in young people? Here are my thoughts…
Learning from mistakes
Learning from mistakes is absolutely critical in developing resilience and mental fortitude.
Psychologist Marilyn Price-Mitchell said that the ability to learn from failure is ‘paramount to becoming a resilient young person’.
This is an important concept, and must be reinforced by teachers and tutors alike.
Price-Mitchell also reflects this idea, saying that educators must ensure to ‘cultivate an approach to life that views obstacles as a critical part of success, we help them develop resilience.’
In my opinion the normalisation of mistakes and learning from them as a means of developing resilience is paramount to the development of mental resilience.
Setting brave goals
A great tool to build mental resilience, particularly in children, teenagers and young adults, is to set bold goals.
Ever heard of ‘aim for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars’?
The same type of approach is beneficial to our learning, and helps us build resilience.
By pushing ourselves even when the going gets tough and the tasks are tricky, we build up mental fortitude.
Facing your fears
Finally, facing your fears is an essential way to build resilience.
With regards to learning, a typical scenario might be dealing with a tricky concept that a student doesn’t enjoy.
For example, at 11+ level in Maths this might be long division.
If this is done in small steps and little by little, this will help build confidence and resilience.
This is known as ‘exposure therapy’ and it entails positive repetition of a task which helps convince us we can do it (and even enjoy it sometimes), by essentially tricking our brains into a positive cycle.
This helps to change negative associations to positive associations with any given stimulus.
Further Reading: Resilience: A Crucial Skill for School Pupils (Bristol Tutors)