RESILIENCE AND DEALING WITH CHANGE

From pandemics to personal relationships, here’s what you need to know about dealing with change

One thing is for sure in life: you never know what is around the corner. Whilst it might be a cheesy saying, it is very true. There is no doubt that you will face many unexpected challenges throughout your life. Whether it’s a breakup, losing a loved one, failing at something or a global event like a pandemic, these life events can bring with them a range of emotions – sadness, confusion, fear, anxiety, and a sense of loss. It’s perfectly normal to feel intense emotion towards change.

Whilst some people naturally cope better with change than others, very few people remain completely unaffected by it. Learning how to cope with change is a skill that is developed over time as you experience more things, and your perspective changes. People who cope well are often referred to as being resilient. This refers to a person’s ability to ‘bounce back’ in the face of adversity. Bouncing back isn’t a race though. Whether it takes you five minutes or five years, working through the emotions attached to a changing circumstance is demonstrating your resilience. Whilst everyone deals with things differently, there are a few things you can do to help build resilience and cope better in the face of change:

Keep calm and take a deep breath if you receive bad news. Give yourself some time to process things before reacting.

Choose your response and think objectively about how to react. It’s hard to remove emotion from some situations, but having a clear head can really help you decide what to do next.

Believe in yourself and realise just because something bad happened once, it doesn’t mean it will happen again. Have confidence in yourself and your ability to get through this.

Set yourself goals and accept that you might not reach them all. Don’t be afraid to be ambitious and don’t forget to regularly look back at how far you have come.

Be realistic and understand that you will experience setbacks throughout your life. In fact, some of the most successful people will tell you that they succeeded because of the setbacks.

Talk it through if you need to. You never need to be ashamed in asking for support with major life events.

Coping With Academic Setbacks

Whether you fail a module, or are struggling with your entire degree, remember that academic setbacks at university are common for lots of students and that all is not lost. There are many ways you can get back on track:

1 Don’t bury your head in the sand. If you are struggling or have failed coursework or an exam, you need to be proactive in understanding what went wrong, and how you can fix it next time. Don’t do nothing.

2 Try to identify what went wrong.

If it’s a case of not putting in the work, then that’s easy to solve next time. If it’s that you revised the wrong thing, or don’t understand the material, you may need to investigate further with your tutor. Make sure you learn from last time and don’t repeat your mistake.

3 Put in the extra work. Read extra materials, join a study group or chat to your tutor about the marking criteria. Do whatever it takes to get ahead. It’s not going to be forever but putting the work in now will help avoid feeling like this again in a few months’ time and will maximise your chances of success. You may need to keep tweaking your approach until you find one that works for you, but it will be worth it in the end!