Stage 7 · Lesson 3 of 6

Habits that make setbacks easier to carry

Resilience, a post-mortem and starting again

Resilience is less a personality trait and more a set of things you keep doing in ordinary weeks, so that a bad week does not knock you over. The basics show up again and again in research: regular sleep, physical activity, time with people you trust, something outside work or study that you enjoy, and a sense of purpose.

Add a few specific habits: a weekly review of what went well, a list of past setbacks you got through, and someone you check in with regularly. None of these needs a lot of time.

Common trapbuilding these habits only after a crisis, when they are hardest to start.

A question to check yourself and an AI practice session come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with· follow one of these

GuideFree
Self-Compassion (Dr Kristin Neff)
Kristin Neff
Kristin Neff's free exercises for treating yourself like a friend after failure
VideoFree
How to Make Stress Your Friend (Kelly McGonigal, TEDGlobal 2013)
Kelly McGonigal (TEDGlobal 2013)
How seeing stress differently, and reaching out to others, changes how it affects you

Practise

Greater Good in Action (UC Berkeley)
Free, research-based practices for gratitude, connection and resilience

Keep handy

Sefism Switch into Tech Roadmap
If your post-mortem points to a new direction, a plan for switching into tech

Also worth your time

Atomic Habits (James Clear)ReadPaid
How to make small resilience habits stick when motivation runs out

Struggling right now? If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, contact local emergency services or a crisis line: Find a helpline (any country), Umang (Pakistan), Tele-MANAS, 14416 (India).