How to Build Career Resilience

Cities, companies, C-level executives and senior leaders are often  focused on building resilience into their operations. What junior  professionals and individual contributors may not realize is that they  too can build a level of personal resilience into their careers. Knowing  how to adjust to unforeseen obstacles and stay steady and calm through  periods of uncertainty is key to a sustainable and satisfying work life.

One of the best ways to learn how to build career resilience is by  listening to the insights and experiences of seasoned experts. Below, 12  members of Forbes Coaches Council  share their best tips for professionals who want to ensure they can  navigate the ups and downs of their careers while remaining personally  stable, strong and capable of evolving through any changes that come  their way.

1. Define ‘Resilience’ For Yourself

A way to become more resilient is to define it for yourself.  Resilience is made up of a combination of things such as self-awareness  and self-management (including caring for yourself, knowing what you  want and don’t want in life, setting boundaries and so on), building and  managing healthy personal and professional relationships, and being  intentional about finding balance. Balance is not stagnant; it is a  constant journey. - Michelle Braden, MSBCoach, LLC

2. Stay Attuned To Your Environment

The most resilient people see opportunities where others cannot.  Bearing this in mind, junior professionals would do well to stay attuned  to the environments and systems they find themselves in with a sense of  openness and curiosity. This level of attention has the potential to  shift their perspective on any situation that may present itself.  Possibilities to bounce forward emerge as a result. - Linda Aiyer, InfinitU Consulting

3. Build And Cultivate Your Network

One thing a junior professional can do to build resilience into their  career is build and cultivate their network. Cultivating your network  is more than connecting on LinkedIn; it’s something that you invest in  over time. Developing a practice of nurturing your relationships is a  critical component of building career resilience. - Caroline Vernon, Intoo, USA

4. Seek And Harness Personal Disruption

Seek and harness personal disruption rather than avoiding it.  Whatever you put your attention toward expands. So when we obsess about  avoiding something, that thing expands—and it does so without our  consent or participation. When we seek disruption, we can use it to  drive our path into areas where we want to grow. By disrupting  ourselves, we dive into learning and growth and learn resilience. - David Taylor-Klaus, DTK Coaching, LLC

5. Understand Your Neurological Design

Understand your neurological design and natural intelligence  preferences. That, along with using the correct levers to optimize your  brain’s performance, helps to grow one’s neuro-agility, adaptability,  problem-solving skills and creativity. This level of conscious awareness  can even alter career aspirations and outcomes as one creates  fulfillment based on purpose and doing what they love. - Arthi Rabikrisson, Prerna Advisory

6. Become An Active Lifelong Learner

The world of work is changing so fast, and it will continue to do so  in the years ahead. To keep up with change and develop resilience,  everyone must become a lifelong learner—beyond giving it just lip  service! You need to actively approach it by actively learning every  single day. If you’re not doing that, you’re not growing, and worse,  you’re probably going backward. - Lital Marom, UNFOLD Media Group

7. Create Content That Has Lasting Impact

Treat thoughts as things. I advise my younger leaders to create  content that has lasting impact and value. I also suggest growing your  personal brand as you grow your career. If you don’t write articles,  build out your speaking capacity and, at minimum, journalize what you  learn and your insights, you will lose a lot. You never know what taking  yourself seriously will produce now or in the future. - John M. O’Connor, Career Pro Inc.

8. Keep Track Of The Big Picture

Don’t be preoccupied with your job today, this month or even this  year. Envision what your career will look like in ten years and plot a  course with a few different paths to get there. So, when you encounter  the typical career snags, setbacks and bottlenecks, you’ll maintain your  resilience because you will have different paths to take toward  achievement and a forward perspective. - Loren Margolis, Training & Leadership Success LLC

9. Be More Self-Aware, Self-Caring And Cognitive

Being able to bounce back, recover and adapt is rooted in  self-awareness, self-care and being more cognitive. Coming from a place  of purpose (mission), being intentional and strategic (vision) and  aligning our personal core values allows us to create a foundation where  character, talents, skills, knowledge and experience inspire us to be  productive and realize more moments of enjoyment in our work. - Lori Harris, Harris Whitesell Consulting

10. Focus On Emotional Intelligence And The Seven C’s Of Resilience

I dedicate a good amount of time to working with executives and  leaders on the seven C’s of resilience: competence, confidence,  connection, character, contribution, coping and control. For junior  professionals, I’d highly recommend working on their self-awareness and  emotional intelligence first. That will help with developing a more  accurate perspective, greater confidence and the ability to learn from  mistakes or failures. - Asha Mankowska MA, Your Favorite Business Coach & Consultant

11. Feel The Feelings Before Making A Plan To Move Forward

Many people believe that resilience is about not letting things  bother you. Not so—resilience is about being able to move forward when  things are difficult or upsetting or when there is a loss. Feel the  feelings. Take the time needed to acknowledge the failure. Then, make a  plan to move forward. Trying to hide, diminish or sweep away difficult  feelings ensures that they will eventually resurface. - Cheryl Czach, Cheryl Czach Coaching and Consulting, LLC

12. Build Transferable Business Skills

Personal resilience in business occurs when an employee has the  ability to move anywhere in a company. This means they must build  transferable business skills such as process improvement,  problem-solving, business intelligence, change management, project  management and communication. This doesn’t mean they need to become an  expert in these skills, but that they must become competent. - John Knotts, Crosscutter Enterprises

This article was originally published on Forbes.