A level resilience

Like many parents I spent Thursday morning anxiously waiting to hear how my middle daughter had done in her A levels. It's been a challenging year for her as she has had to manage the disappointment of not being offered a place on the course which she had set her heart on.

Now, like everyone we all went through the emotional cycle of change experiencing feelings of disbelief, denial, anger etc. I was concerned that the set back may impact on my daughters motivation to do as well as she could in her forthcoming exams. What made it worse was that the college she applied to was not prepared to give any feedback as to what specifically had led to their decision so at least my daughter could have gained some feedback for future applications.

After the initial disappointment my daughter picked herself up and focused back on her studies with a calmness and determination that has impressed us all. Although fully immersed in her studies my daughter continued to attempt to make contact with the university to find out more information that could help her with a future application.

So a timely tale to share which I think links well to the three resilient attitudes identified by Salvatore Maddi and Deborah Khoshaba in their excellent book 'Resilience at Work'. In the book they suggest that the attitudes of commitment, control and challenge came up repeatedly when analysing a group of resilient managers.

Commitment from the point of view that if an individual’s work or studies is important enough to them then full attention, focus and effort will follow.

Control in that an individual keeps trying to positively influence the outcomes of the changes going on around them.

Challenge in the fact that an individual faces into potentially stressful changes, seek to understand and learn from them before establishing a plan to move forward.

Over the past six months my daughter has worked through the implications of taking a year out and constructed a plan to maximise her chances of success next time around. This included securing part time employment and seeking voluntary work in a local school.

So does this story have a happy ending?

Well it does actually and I'm proud to say that my daughter achieved better grades than were required for her entry onto the course. She  then spent several frustrating hours trying to contact the university to advise them of her success.

..and the result?

A place on the course starting in October!

We are all very proud of her not only in terms of her academic achievement but also around the resilient maturity demonstrated.

So we are now preparing to celebrate her success on the fields of Chelmsford as we head off to the V festival and looking outside the window it's raining.

Looks like we will all have to demonstrate a level of resilience this weekend!

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http://www.martincrisp.com/freebook/