Happy New Year! I hope you had a joyful and restful holiday season. As we usher in the new year, many of us are reflecting on how we can move forward with renewed energy and purpose. You are probably using this time to take a deeper look at your personal and professional goals so that you can plan for a strong 2025. Kristi wrote last month about taking the time to dream big and I hope you were able to carve out the time to do some of that visioning for the new year.
This time of year also offers a unique opportunity to re-evaluate our well-being and resilience. As leaders in this movement, we are often fighting on multiple fronts—combating climate change, protecting endangered species, and advocating for policies that sustain our community’s health. Leading in the face of such significant challenges can quickly lead to stress, burnout, and exhaustion. So, how can we nourish our resilience and safeguard our well-being as we continue to lead the charge for a more sustainable future? Let’s walk through some of the practices that will fortify us for the road ahead.
What Is Resilience? Thriving, Not Enduring
Resilience is often misunderstood as simply enduring hardship or “toughing it out” in the face of adversity. However, true resilience is not about merely surviving the tough times—it’s about replenishing and thriving despite the challenges you face. This allows you to show up as your best, both for your team and the causes you care about. Resilience is what allows you to keep showing up with energy, clarity, and purpose, day after day, year after year. It’s how you bounce forward, not back.
To lead effectively, you need to nourish all aspects of your well-being: physically, mentally, and spiritually. It’s about replenishing your energy, honing your skills, and aligning your actions with a clear sense of purpose. This holistic approach ensures that you can support yourself and lead with conviction, without sacrificing your well-being.
JANUARY 23rd WEBINAR
Join us for the webinar, New Year, Resilient You, where we’ll learn practical tools to start the year with a clear focus on nourishing ourselves so that we can lead more effectively, make a lasting impact, and create the change we wish to see in the world.
Building Your Life’s House
To better understand how resilience works, imagine that your life is like a house.
- The roof of your house represents your work—the protective layer that provides security and stability. It’s where you derive purpose and meaning, but also where much of your stress often originates.
- The main structure of your house represents your personal life—relationships, hobbies, rest, and other activities that bring joy and fulfillment. It’s the heart of your existence and what sustains you day-to-day.
- Finally, the foundation of the house is your self-care—your physical, emotional, and mental health. This is the bedrock of resilience, the solid ground that keeps your house steady and secure. Without a strong foundation, nothing else stands.
Ideally, we would spend equal time tending to all three parts of our life—nourishing our work, personal life, and self-care. But more often than not, we end up borrowing from the foundation to support the roof. We sacrifice sleep, skip meals, or neglect our mental health to meet work demands, assuming that we’ll be able to replenish later. But if we do this for too long, we risk the integrity of the entire house. Without a strong foundation, our work (the roof) begins to sag, and our personal life (the structure) begins to crumble. Eventually, the whole house may collapse under the pressure.
This is why resilience isn’t just about enduring through tough times—it’s about regularly replenishing and reinforcing your foundation, so you can continue to show up fully for both your work and your personal life without losing your stability.
The Resilience 5 R’s: A Framework for Thriving
To help you cultivate resilience in a way that aligns with your leadership goals, consider adopting the “5 R’s” of resilience: Reassess, Reduce, Reframe, Recharge, and Realign.
- Reassess: Step back and take a broad view of your life and leadership. How do your days feel? What are the biggest sources of stress? Are you spending your time on what truly matters? Take time to identify what’s working and what isn’t. Reassessing allows you to make intentional changes that bring you closer to a sense of balance and well-being.
- Reduce: Stress comes from both external pressures (work demands, financial stress) and internal reactions (self-imposed expectations, fears, and limiting beliefs). Learn to reduce your chronic stress load by saying no when necessary, delegating tasks, and being realistic about what you can handle.
- Reframe: Often, stress and burnout are fueled by unhelpful thoughts, attitudes, and expectations. Reframing involves looking at situations through a different lens, challenging negative beliefs, and setting more realistic expectations. When you change the way you perceive challenges, you can reduce their emotional toll and regain your sense of control.
- Recharge: You must prioritize your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Recharge through practices like exercise, mindfulness, connecting with loved ones, or engaging in meaningful hobbies. Without regular recharging, you’ll deplete your reserves, and your resilience will weaken.
- Realign: The final step is realignment: adjusting your actions to reflect your priorities and values. Are your daily actions supporting your long-term goals? Are you making choices that align with your personal well-being? Realignment ensures that your energy and focus are spent in the most impactful and fulfilling ways.
Sustaining Impact Amidst Uncertainty
As conservation leaders, we face a constant tension between the urgency of our mission and the reality of limited resources and overwhelming challenges. But resilience allows us to not only endure these difficulties but to continue making meaningful progress. It’s about finding ways to thrive despite uncertainty, keeping the “big picture” in mind, and constantly adjusting our course as needed.
By focusing on replenishing our energy, improving our self management skills, and prioritizing what matters most, we can continue to lead with purpose and passion—without sacrificing our well-being.
Wishing you a great 2025,
Intentional Leadership Learning Guide
This learning guide provides resources and tools for leaders to develop self-awareness, identify and leverage their natural gifts, and determine a plan to tend to stretch goals and challenges. Resources support internal growth, as well as information to communicate and manage effectively, plan for and have hard conversations, and how to delegate, make informed decisions, and give & receive feedback.
Sustaining Well-Being
Resilience, Change Management, Mindfulness, and more!
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We’ve finally gotten some snow here in SLC, so my family has packed away our camping gear and brought out our snowshoes and skis!
A place I travelled to recently that brought me a lot of peace and joy was Greece. I visited Athens, Crete, and Santorini with my sisters and it was such an incredible time.
I’m a big book worm and I’m super excited about my latest non-fiction book stack.
I started with Brigid Schulte’s newest book, Over Work, which explores how our work lives can be better aligned to support our whole lives. Her previous book, Overwhelmed, is a favorite of mine and I think this one is going to be a close second!
