Endurance is a life skill worthy of development. It’s our ability to withstand something challenging. An easy way to envision it is a through a sports example, such as building stamina by increasing the number of reps you do in your exercises.
Endurance has become an essential skill in the workplace. Leaders and their employees alike need the stamina to overcome challenges, some of which persist for long periods of time.
How do you do this? It starts with mindset. Decide that you want to develop higher levels of endurance. Cultivating this skill needs to start with a real desire, because without your self-motivation, it’s harder to achieve.
Think of it from the opposite perspective. How many times have you heard co-workers say something like, “I’ve had it – I’m not going to deal with this anymore”? This negative mindset is the fast track to apathy.
When you decide that you’re not going to let the challenges (or negativity) get to you, you have the mindset to build endurance.
Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight. Start small. For example, if someone is hypercritical about an action you’ve taken, don’t react overtly.
Do what is necessary to fix the problem and then afterwards dissect what happened. What could you have done differently? What questions could you have asked? How can you reframe the problem?
You will always learn something from such an evaluation, so apply it again to each subsequent situation. By repeating the process, before you know it you will be handling things differently. You will be building endurance.
Remember that it’s a process, not a one-time event. You don’t have to like what’s happening to you on the job, but by working on building endurance, you’re developing the skill a skill that will serve you well throughout your life.
It’s not what happens to you; it’s how you handle what happens to you. Build your endurance.
