The Coronavirus: Our Test of Resilience

Much of our intial response toward the coronavirus pandemic focuses on what we can do or can't do. How do we respond? What are the guidelines? What steps do we take? What are the proper procedures? What resources do we have? Our natural response is to look externally. This external focus tend to include questions about identifying who is to blame. What individual, what country did this to us or didn't do enough for us? Fair enough.

What is equally important is who we are and who we can be in this time of crisis. That requires an internal focus. That requires us to identify our skills of resilience, our mental core. What characteristics do we possess to help us respond best to the crisis?

Perhaps our best internal reflections should consist of a personal and individual inventory of our abilities to withstand ambiquity and uncertainty as well as our ability to be flexible and nimble as our external environment shifts around us and situations change. How do we keep from responding with our lizard brain?

So, what is resilience? How do we assess our mental core?

Resilience refers to the skill and ability to quickly and fully bounce back from setbacks, to deal with adversity, learn from mistakes and effectively put your mistakes behind you. Only recently has resilience been seriously considered as a component of mental toughness. Resilience includes carefully obtaining, valuing, and incorporating constructive feedback and doing what is required with the resources that are available.   It has to do with your emotional strength.

Resilience also requires us to recognize and acknowledge that, now, perhaps more ever, we live in a VUCA world. VUCA is an acronym used by the US Military long ago to describe extreme conditions in combat. It stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

The word "core" in the physical fitness and conditioning world has become a buzzword. Like the physical core, there is also a mental core related to mental conditioning. Physical core training is about increasing power, strength and stabilization. So, is the training of your mental core.

Many fitness buffs often think only of sit-ups and crunches as the secret to strengthening the core. True fitness experts know that there is much more to the core than an impressive six-pack. Similarly, many athletes and coaches think that the mental core is simply just about developing mental toughness (the equivalent of a mental core “six-pack”). The mental core is much more than mental toughness.

The mental core creates a solid, fundamental, and broad base for your overall mental fitness and, thus, your subsequent ability to perform successfully. Resilience requires us to take inventory of our mental core.


So, what does constitute the mental core?


Internal Dialogue/Self-Talk - simply put, these are the things you say to yourself about yourself and the state of world around you. A common problem with our cognitive mindset is that that it is often stuck in evaluation activities when it should be focused on other tasks (such as gathering information, skill acquisition, rehearsal, and execution, for example). Increasing your awareness of your internal dialogue/self-talk and its effect on your behavior have a great influence on your success in dealing with crises. 

Communication Skills- these skills are underrated in our crisis responses. Clear, concrete, specific communication and active listening skills are crucial to our ability to be resilient as well as being effective problem solvers and decision makers.  Paranthetically, this may be the time to embrace technology and our reliance on our electronic devices (computers, phones, tablets, and games) to maintain our connectivity as well deal with the effects of social distance and physical isolation.  We can address our addictions to our devices after we get through this crisis.

Daily Pre- and Post- Recovery Skills - here, emphasis is placed on the importance of developing a set of skills and activities that provide you with an opportunity to fully recover mentally from daily challenges.  These mental skills are as crucial as physical recovery skills. Evidence is mounting that both mental and physical recovery skills (including sleep) are more important than we ever considered in the past.

Systems Thinking - in the case of your mental core, this refers to your awareness and understanding of the matrixed complexity, interrelatedness and connection of multiple factors involved in your behavior and the behavior of others. It also refers to the idea that in order to affect real behavioral change, a system that provides structure and consistency must be put into place. Systems thinking in this context implies that mental conditioning and strengthening of your mental core requires you to become a student of mental conditioning, cognitive processes, and behavioral psychology.  It suggests the importance of interconnectivity of things as well as people.


Anxiety Management - refers to the idea that 1) anxiety is a part of life; 2) mental fitness includes the acknowledgment and management rather than the eradication of anxiety; 2) that excitement and anxiety can be two words for the same thing; and, 3) the goal of mental conditioning can't and shouldn't be to eliminate anxiety but to use it.


Emotional Intelligence - emotional intelligence (and related skills) is an important and necessary component of resilience. Emotional intelligence involves the understanding of the critical role that emotional information and social interactions play in crisis situations and success. Evidence suggests that emotional intelligence is an important characteristic of effective leadership and team development required in crises.


Confidence - this component of your mental core is one of the characteristics that has been long considered critical to success in any endeavor, including sports and the performing arts. In this model of the mental core, confidence is defined as a general sense that one's skills and abilities are capable of achieving one's desired outcomes. Many people include this component in their idea of mental toughness. Confidence is particularly dependent upon a healthy cognitive mindset. Confidence also involves our ability to take inventory of our previous encounters with extreme stress and crisis situations and remind ourselves of our strengths and mastery of previously stressful situations.


Preparation Skills - this factor suggests that 1) success is related to one's understanding and awareness that personal growth occurs through the methodical process of continuous learning and development of skills, rather than inherent, genetically-informed and pre-ordained "talent"; and, 2) is highly influenced by your desire and willingness to consistently spend long-hours of monotonous, focused, disciplined, repetitive activity to improve and perfect your skills and abilities.


Mindfulness - this important factor of the mental core refers to a broad set of skills that include mental imagery and visualization, relaxation and meditation skills, focusing and centering skills.  Research is showing that mindfulness approaches can be very helpful to day-to-day mental and emotional recovery. 

To close, these skills are greatly needed in this time of crisis as we deal with this pandemic in an effective, strategic, cooperative manner without contributing to misinformation, panic and over-reaction.    

Panic: Abandoning The Strategy or Staying the Course

Happily, the Atlanta Braves started the season 12-1. They began Sunday with a two-game lead in the National League East. During their hot start they displayed great pitching and tremendous home run hitting. Justin Upton leads the major leagues with 12 home runs.

However, since the 12-1 start, the Braves have lost 11 of 16 games. The fans are restless and the team is questioning itself. Many people have questioned the team's power-focused, home run-or-bust mentality. As the losing slump began, Atlanta had six straight games with double-digit strikeouts, including three games in Detroit in which they totaled 39. They lead in the N.L. in strikeouts (266) and are tied for first in home runs (40).

Using this approach, the Braves' hitters are striking out 9.2 times a game, which puts them on a pace to become the second team to strike out more than 1,400 times in a season. The Braves have won just one game in which they did not hit a home run. It is not as if the Braves are undisciplined free swingers. They draw their share of walks — they are tied for fourth in the N.L.

Those that support the Braves' exciting, yet frustrating strategy, point out the fact that six-time All-Star Brian McCann has not played since off-season shoulder surgery, Jason Heyward is on the disabled list after an appendectomy, and second baseman Dan Uggla and outfielder B. J. Upton have not been hitting well at all. It is possible that when the team gets healthy, its hitting and power will reach new levels of efficiency and lead to more winning.

The team stands 17-12 with almost a fifth of the season gone. They have a .586 winning percentage.

Should the Atlanta Braves start panicking? Should they abandon the strategy upon which the team was built?

The Braves may not have another 12-1 streak in them this season. However, the organization built this team for power and pitching. They spent much time researching data, obtaining talent, and making the decision about their plan for the season. In preparation for this season, the team committed to this approach. If they built it, they should use it. It is entirely too early to change their strategy. They must show confidence in the strategy and the players they obtained to execute the strategy. The Braves should not panic.

There is a much greater risk in changing anything major at this point in the season. With this personnel, a shift in strategy is much more likely to jeopardize the entire season than would staying the course. Ride out the season. Keep the fans excitement high. Power, home runs and pitching will keep the fans coming. The challenge is in executing the plan. It is not time to abandon the strategy that plays to the strengths of the team. Keep the faith.