Success is often presented as a journey of timing and good fortune; where the path to achievement seems like a pre-ordained destiny.

The reality is far from that illusion.

Success is more comparable to navigating a tumultuous sea, with unpredictable waves and frequent storms. There are moments when it feels like the odds are stacked against you, making progress seem damn near impossible.

In these moments, we have two options:

• Resist Change: Stick our head in the sand and ignore the challenges and obstacles that surround you, hoping and waiting they pass. If we do, we risk missing crucial cues and insights that can shape the path forward.
• Embrace Resilience: Stand tall and realize the true essence of attaining and maintaining success lies in your capacity to be resilient in the face of adversity. Resilience empowers us to absorb some of the forces in our environment, to navigate them skillfully and emerge stronger.

Resilience isn't a trait you're born with; it's a skill you develop and hone through life experience. It requires a willingness to reflect and learn from past experiences, adjusting when necessary, and, above all, continuing to push forward.

So when the next storms comes, as it inevitably will, remember that it is not about avoiding it. Instead, use the opportunity to learn how how you can weather it and come out stronger on the other side -- better equipped and battle tested.

Building Resilience

So, how do you develop this resilience and why is it so essential to our success? Here are three takeaways:

• Embrace Humility: Humility is superpower in disguise. It keeps your mind open to the realization that lessons can come from anywhere and anyone on our journey. It prevents you from reaching a state where we feel we are above learning from others. Remember, the most successful people are those who continuously learn and evolve.
• Cultivate a Growth Mindset: A growth mindset is key to navigating tough times. It allows you to perceive potential stumbling blocks not as insurmountable hurdles, but as opportunities for learning and development. With a growth mindset, you can extract valuable lessons from each experience, lessons that can help at any point in our journey.
• Read Your Environment: Resilience allows you to persevere through hardships while keeping a broad perspective of your surroundings. In contrast, moving with tunnel vision can blind you to important insights and opportunities. By being resilient, you not only weather the storm, but also come out of it with enhanced insights and situational awareness.

Resilience is a skill that increases in value the higher you ascend. It transforms you into a formidable captains of your ships, navigating the rough seas with skill and tenacity. This ability to stand in the storm, to absorb and learn from the surrounding elements, is what differentiates the truly successful from the rest.

So, the next time you find yourself in a storm, remember – it's not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to sail in it.