After an eventful end to 2025 and an exciting, goal-oriented January, I felt it was fitting for February to talk about Resilience. Most days in life come in waves. While some days can flow as smooth as the soft, still water on a lake at sunset, other days may feel like a rapid, raging tsunami shoaling from miles and miles off the coast until it finally reaches shore. In our personal lives, maybe this presents in things like recovering from an illness, experiencing financial strain, adapting to changes or experiencing a personal failure. At work, this can look like learning a new policy, missing a deadline, client cancellations or big schedule changes or maybe your work is piling up and pressing matters require you to pivot in real time. We all know how easy it can be to feel overwhelmed in those moments or to feel like you are being consumed by the weight of everything happening at once.
Practicing resilience isn’t about “having it all together” or never failing. Resilience is about having the courage to stand up more times than you fall down and acknowledging the capacity within yourself to withstand anything. As Roger Crawford said, ‘Being challenged in life is inevitable; being defeated is optional”. Your power comes from your perspective.
I see resilience in each of you every day. From things like stepping in to help an overwhelmed teammate, staying calm and professional when a parent is upset, receiving constructive feedback and implementing changes without shutting down, managing a large caseload without cutting corners or finding the courage to ask for help or clarification. These are the moments that matter the most! As we navigate our way through February, my hope is that we will give ourselves and each other grace, patience and understanding. Resilience is not something you have to learn and build on your own, we can build it together as a TEAM!
- Jaqualine Dempsey