How to Build Mental Resilience in High-Stakes Roles

When your job is intense, resilience isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity that must be actively cultivated.

Our mental resilience serves as a quiet anchor when life becomes a little more complicated, like when experiencing additional expectations or increased uncertainty. It’s not about avoiding or never experiencing stress or anxiety. Instead, mental resilience is about grounding ourselves with an inner steadiness that will enable us to stay centered, true to ourselves, and effective, even when the world seems erratic and unpredictable.

Like physical fitness, mental resilience is not a natural outcome, rather, it is connected to a series of skills that we can all learn and practice. Resilience develops using continuous self-awareness, adaptability, and self-compassion. Focusing on our strengths and helping one another helps us to create settings where everyone can evolve, flourish, and meet whatever adversity may arise.

These gentle, evidence-based strategies can help you to reflect and to refocus when it might be needed the most.

1.    Practice introspection with curiosity:

Stop, even momentarily, during a trying event, perhaps in the middle of a demanding project, leading a new team, or a tense conference call, and gently ask yourself, “How am I feeling right now, in this moment?” or “What am I feeling in my body?”. Name your emotions – am I feeling overwhelmed, angry, frustrated, sad, or anxious about my performance or about how I am being perceived in this moment? Once you identify what is present, consider what you need to release or to feel “unstuck” in this feeling. Ask yourself: “What can I do to ease this?”. It could be just enjoying a warm beverage, walking outside for a mindful breath of fresh air and a little sunlight, speaking to yourself with kindness and encouragement, or seeking a moment of connection by checking in with a colleague in person or virtually to debrief what just happened. Each of us needs to experiment in order to find out what soothes and comforts us. By taking a moment to check in with ourselves with curiosity and kindness, we can more intentionally and deliberately meet the demands of life by being more sensitive to our own needs.

2.    Challenge negative thoughts:

Resilience isn’t about “positive thinking” or avoiding difficult emotions. It’s about locating your inner compass when things seem out of control. And despite what social media might imply, we don’t naturally possess this mental strength. Rather, we develop it step by shaky step, over time, and most often with a helping hand. When self-doubt strikes and tells us that “I can’t handle this”, pause and gently question that belief. Is this thought accurate? Is this thought kind and encouraging? Is this thought helping or hurting me? Take a few minutes to review the evidence from your life experiences in order to recognize that this thought may not be entirely accurate. Remember past difficulties you overcame, the things that you have accomplished and felt proud about, and times where you previously pushed through an anxious moment or overcame a fear. Then, try reinterpreting the negative thought with something more balanced and encouraging. For example, “I can do it again, I have managed difficult times before”. Our ability to handle challenges is often much stronger than we give ourselves credit for, and shifting away from self-criticism and self-doubt and towards more self-reflection and self-compassion is a key shift in challenging some of our most negative thoughts.

3.    Discover stability amongst uncertainty:

Many of us struggle in times of stress, and although it can be unpleasant, uncertainty does not have to consume us. Rather than living in the unknown, first try grounding yourself in what you do know and what you can control. Even in the most uncertain of times, one of the things that we do know is that we can adapt and change to meet the circumstances. Reminding ourselves of our ability to cope can allow us to be more tolerant of uncertainty in our lives. Another helpful strategy, particularly when uncertainty feels overwhelming, has to do with instituting some control by dividing larger demands into short-term, achievable steps, drawing on our own abilities and strengths and reaching out to our support network. Even when the road ahead seems unknown, these touchpoints can help us to move forward with increased confidence.

4.    Give microbreaks a higher priority:

Although it’s tempting to keep pushing through never-ending emails or meetings, small acts of self-care can have a significant effect. Schedule several microbreaks throughout the day, and respond to shifts in your bodily awareness of stress by inviting yourself to take a short break to clear your mind and allow you to refocus. Enjoy a snack away from your desk, stretch between calls, pause to look out the window at a cloud floating by, or take moment to slow down and focus on your breath before moving on to your next chore. Establish sensible limits to guard your time. These little healing moments help us to regain clarity and resilience so that we can show up more completely for others and for ourselves.

5.    Make time for connection:

Throughout the above tips, a common theme is the importance of turning towards others at times when we are in need of support. It is sometimes remarkable how much relief can be found in the recognition that we are not alone as we move through the trials and tribulations of life. The important people in our lives are often our most significant sources of support, comfort and enjoyment, but they can also help us to challenge our assumptions, to counter negative self-talk and to gently shift our perspective. At times when we are feeling overwhelmed, it can feel like we don’t have the time to be social, but these can also be the times when it is more important than ever to lean on our close others. For those of us who might be legitimately more alone after points of transition related to life events like graduating university, moving cities, taking on a new career adventure, or becoming a parent, it is important to make time to build new connections by turning towards the others who we find in our new environments and by seeking out new communities of people who have similar interests or life circumstances.

Taking time to cultivate our mental resilience benefits us individually, allows us to refocus on the things we need to tackle, and gives us what we need to be supportive of the important others in our lives.

We are not the only ones who benefit from these skills that are designed to build our mental resilience, as the effects tend to ripple outwards and to have a positive impact on the people around us. Those who foster resilience often have better control of their stress, are generally more optimistic, and feel more hopeful about the future. Resilience can spread by showing what is possible, by creating safer surroundings, and by developing stronger communities. Leaders who normalize suffering and recovery have altered workplace cultures.

Resilience in families creates close, encouraging relationships that enable everyone to feel that they can overcome obstacles together. Resilient individuals help communities to develop shared resources, a feeling of belonging, and a collective strength. Resilience allows us to bounce back from setbacks, to grow from mistakes, and to find meaning in our experiences. We can all develop the mental resilience required to navigate the most difficult of times, and we can come out on the other side feeling stronger and more connected by creating space for self-care, by gently challenging negative ideas, and by leaning on our close relationships.

Resilience is about forward movement with more wisdom and connection, not only about getting back up after a setback. Resilience makes slipping and falling, getting muddy, and learning and trying again possible, ideally with people who care about us and who will provide a helping hand, a clean towel, and remind us why the journey is essential. With resilience, we develop the capacity to meet whatever comes next, not perfectly, but with intention, by being aware, by questioning the narratives and beliefs that serve to limit us, by finding stability in the face of uncertainty, and by knowing that we can all heal together.