Building up inner resilience to overcome challenges | Sunday Observer

Building up inner resilience to overcome challenges

7 April, 2019

It is a long time since technology took control over us, and we are technologically overloaded with information. How are we dealing with information? Are we letting in too much of information? Are we handling information or is information handling us?

Nalaka Hewamadduma, coaching at his Consultancy establishment in Dehiwela and author on mental resilience, personal productivity and wellbeing, speaks about the drawbacks in reaching targets as we drown in technology. “When outside challenges strike, and if you are unable to deal with them, it exhausts you,” said Hewamadduma. To overcome such challenges he proposes building ‘resilience.’

He says everyone has goals. Sometimes we call them dreams, because we are passionate to reach a certain destination by a certain age. Therefore, we should focus on reaching those goals. He says we should have the answers to the questions: What are we going to do with our lives? Where are we heading?

He has outlined a brief process to reach our targets. “We can’t have multiple goals. There should be only two or three goals,” he added.

“Once we have them, we should build our competency to gain knowledge, skills and commitment to achieve the goals.

As he says, we have to be aware of our potentials, the competency to reach our goals. “The practice in Sri Lanka is, people first build their knowledge and then the goal, whereas, the ideal situation would be to first have a certain goal and then work on it to gain relevant knowledge,” Hewamadduma said. He stressed the need to build up one’s character capable of making commitments. “Character is the foundation that could help achieve the target,” he said.

Apart from achieving the goal, He asked some simple questions that could measure ‘character’. For example:

1. Is it a truth?

2. Is it fair by all?

3. Does it build goodwill?

4. Will it be beneficial?

“We fail when our character is not strong. A terrorist too could have knowledge and commitment but not proper character,” he said.

“We are born with a set of tools, of which the most powerful are, thinking, imagination, will power and conscience.

So we should be responsible for our decisions and not make excuses,” he added. He suggests taking alternative paths to solve the road blocks.

Hewamadduma said, “We should build self confidence and schedule our priorities. “The ultimate goal in life is happiness, so that we need to prioritize on our health, income and family relationships”.

He emphasized the importance of being a ‘people’s person’, that we should be attracted to others and win their hearts as a trustworthy person.

Therefore, we should take control of technology instead of letting technology control us.

At a time when education is commercialized, and people are running after educational qualifications, ignoring the ‘virtues’ that make us ‘humans’, Hewamadduma wants us to follow what our instincts say. He guides us to build ‘inner resilience’, i.e. the ability to deal with life’s frustrations without falling apart. 

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