Life comes with challenges, but they feel more manageable when you’re able to wield one key skill: resilience. According to the American Psychological Association, resilience is defined as the ability to successfully adapt to difficult life experiences using mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility.

But even if you don’t feel like you embody this character trait yet, it’s not too late. Adults can build their own resiliency to improve how they navigate life’s ups and downs. Even better? The process doesn’t have to be complicated. Lifelong learning is one of the best ways to keep your mind adaptable. By implementing small shifts in your everyday life, you can reap the rewards that come with curiosity and open-mindedness.

Ready to become more resilient? Learn a bit more about the benefits, plus three simple strategies for building this mental muscle.

Why build resilience?

Resilience is an extremely effective part of coping with everyday stressors as well as larger events that happen throughout life. 37% of American adults say they have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, with nearly half of those cases being attributed to either anxiety or depression. On top of that, 62% of adults report not wanting to talk about their burdens to others, and a large percentage say they feel like they’re expected to just “get over it.”

But how can you actually build better resilience to overcome challenges? One solution is to incorporate lifelong learning into your daily routines, both personally and professionally. 

3 Ways to build resilience through lifelong learning

Showing up in life with the attitude of a learner can strengthen your resilience and adaptability. Here’s how to incorporate this approach into your personal and professional life.

#1: Cultivate new skills

Developing a new skill can be a fun and impactful way to build resilience. The process is actually called “tempering,” which is the act of strengthening yourself. This can happen through adversity that’s out of your control, but you can also create a controlled framework of learning that inherently challenges you and get the same results.

When you incorporate any type of continuing education into your life, you can improve executive functioning like problem solving and decision making – and experts believe these skills lead to better resilience. Trial and error in a learning environment, for instance, gives you a safe place to practice moderating your stress-responsive systems.

So how can you expand your skill set while also managing your other responsibilities in life? Break it down into personal and professional categories. Talk to your manager about creating a development plan that includes a new challenge, whether it’s a workshop, a certification program, or an innovative project at the office.

For your personal learning, choose a new hobby or pick back up with something you loved when you were younger and then schedule time on your calendar to actually do it.

#2: Create purposeful goals

As you start to explore new learning opportunities in your life, get clear on goals associated with them in order to maximize your resilience. The reason is because making progress towards a defined goal releases dopamine, which is your motivating hormone – and that makes your brain happy.

The most interesting thing about this, however, is that not only will your brain positively respond at the time you make progress, it also rewires itself to expect positive results in the future. That leads to better resiliency because you’ll have a better outlook when other challenges arise, even when they’re not related to learning or skill building.

Retrain your brain even more effectively by breaking down large goals into smaller milestones, then celebrate when you achieve them. It feels good emotionally and fuels your dopamine – which contributes to more optimism and resiliency. When another challenge in life arises, your brain will react by assuming you’ll be successful, because that’s the pattern of expectation you’ve already set for yourself.

Working with a career coach in this process can be extremely effective in defining goals, identifying roadblocks, and creating a realistic plan to overcome them so that you do set yourself up for success.

#3: Build social connections

Research shows that social support also builds resilience to stress. Actively creating a community of friends, neighbors, and coworkers is believed to increase oxytocin, a neuropeptide that promotes positive feelings (which, as we know, contributes to resilience).

But it can be difficult to grow your social network as an adult. Work and family both take time and responsibility, making it challenging to put in the effort to develop new relationships.

Continuing education not only improves your skills and confidence in achieving positive outcomes, it also creates a built-in space for community. You’ll build your professional network while also finding other individuals with shared experiences in your industry. Supporting each other through the various stages of opportunities and challenges helps both you and the colleagues in your community.

Unlock the key to resilience with lifelong learning

Incorporating curiosity and learning is easier when you have clear goals and a path to get there. Schedule a session with an EdAssist advisor to explore career paths, education benefits, and learning opportunities that fit your interests and schedule. At the same time, you’ll be setting the stage for internal changes with stronger resilience and adaptability in all areas of life.

Book a Coaching Session Today!