Relocation Resilience

Businesses relocate. People relocate to further careers. Companies insist on relocations as a part of the promotion process. People in the military know they’ll relocate time after time.

To be successful with a move, resilience is required. In fact in today’s environment, every day requires resilience if we are going to be successful with our careers and our lives. Resilience is a growing hot business topic.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from challenges and adversity, to stay standing when times are tough and to weather the frustrations of life. For inspiration on what resilience is, I look to trees as the ultimate example. Trees can bend with the wind without breaking, stand tall in a storm, provide shade during the heat, endure fires and winter, and live for hundreds of years.

How do you rate your level of resilience? Consider these traits of resilience.

1. Humor – Humor has on occasion been defined as making nothing out of something. In other words, humor can make a mole-hill out of a mountain. Are you able to find humor in stressful situations? And able to laugh at yourself? In a relocation, stress abounds. Humor brings a release of stress. And stress relief builds our resilience.

2. Creativity – Creativity is the ability to see possibility in everything.

3. Tolerance for change – Without a tolerance for change, stress builds up. Every day we are asked to accept change, make changes, lead changes, explain changes and live with changes. Having a tolerance for change, even embracing and enjoying change can help build resilience.

4. Progress perspective – Moves are generally about making progress, otherwise why make the change? Remembering that the move or change is for making progress, learning new skills, earning a promotion, making family life better and discovering new opportunities can keep you inspired and resilient. A positive and progress-oriented perspective feeds your senses of humor and creativity too.

5. Understand expectations – Discover what expectations your new boss has. Ask what work is expected. Together work to define what is needed to achieve success in the new position, new location and new community. Work expectations change. Family expectations change with each move too. Ask family members what they need to feel like the move is a success.

6. Helping family members – What do you need to fit in to your new job and community? Each family member has needs too: jobs, friends, social structures, schools, sports, leisure activities, time to learn about the community and more. What can you, your company, your extended family and your friends do to help ease the transition? A strong support network contributes to your resilience. Just like the roots of a tree support its longstanding life.

If you claim confidence with more than four of the six traits of resilience, you are well on your way to finding balance and resilience in your life. Focus on your growing your resilience skills and you’ll discover more energy for the relocation and for every day life.

About the Author

Jana M. Kemp, founder of Meeting & Management Essentials, facilitates meetings and speaks across the country on meeting management, time management and communication skills. Boise Police Detective Mike Barker contributed to this article. Detective Barker provides the Lessons from the Force segment on Jana's Momentum™ weekly business-news-talk radio show, every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. on KBOI 670am. Reach Jana via her website janakemp.com.

jana@janakemp.com
http://www.janakemp.com