Building resilience in the face of adversity

By Freya Fredriksson.

Reading time: four minutes.

Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 (13-19 May), The Student Lawyer’s D&I team have written a series of articles to educate and raise awareness about mental health.

What is resilience?

Resilience is regarded as the ability to bounce back following adversity (Lazarus, 1993). This is an important skill for everyone, but more so for those from minority backgrounds. It is not merely the ability to endure hardships but rather to be able to embrace growth and adaptation.

Resilient people can effectively manage stress and maintain a very positive outlook in the face of adversity. This means that this is an expertise that should be built upon which can be done by challenging yourself and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. By doing one thing that scares you a day, you can help to build your resilience which will better equip you as a law student or lawyer.

Strategies for coping with adversity

Helpful reminders

Remind yourself of all the strengths that your adversity has given you so far. For example, it has helped you to be a better advocate for others as you have to be an efficient advocate for yourself daily. Likewise, it means you are incredibly resilient and highly proeficient in problem solving as you have to overcome obstacles and work hard to find a way around them every day.

Support network

Achieving resilience is nearly impossible to do by yourself. This means it is vital that you surround yourself with a network of friends, family and teachers who appreciate you and treat you well. This is because support acts as a buffer against stress and they can provide you with invaluable advice that helps you shift your perspective on any situation.

Personalised toolbox

Create a personalised toolbox that will aid you in times of difficulty – if you like, you can even do this with a friend, family member or teacher. It should consist of healthy coping mechanisms such as ‘I plan to go on a run next time I feel stressed’ or ‘I plan to do some colouring-in next time I am worried’. This will help you feel more in control so that next time you struggle with maintaining your resilience, you do not have to think about how to overcome it and you can instead go straight to your toolbox. It will look different for everyone and that is okay, as long as you are able to develop and master your coping skills over time.

Change your mindset

A growth mindset will help you reframe your setbacks as opportunities for learning. Rather than dwelling on past failures, you can utilise this as a springboard for better things yet to come. 

To learn more about how to adopt a growth mindset, read my previous article: Embracing a growth mindset: the key to success as a lawyer.

Overcoming challenges and setbacks

It is essential to remember that failure is part of success and if you expect to achieve straight As on your first try, then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Try to embrace challenges and welcome failure, as this helps you to recognise that failure is not a bad thing and that it is this very thing that will make you successful.

A bad grade does not determine your final grade and it will never define your personal worth or how ‘clever’ you are. Do not use it as a reason to give up or think that you ‘can’t do it’, instead use it as motivation to try even harder. However, there is a fine line between having aspirations and setting unrealistic goals for yourself. I strongly urge you to have big dreams and strive to work towards them as hard as you can but remember that even if you do not achieve it, you will still get good things.

A quote that summarises this perfectly is by Les Brown: ‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.’

Prioritise self-care as this will help you achieve better grades over time even though you may think it is more important to revise for one more hour instead of going to the gym. You will benefit yourself in the long-term and be able to sustain your revision timetable for longer.

As with applications, rejection is redirection. Again, do not expect to be successful with every single application as this is unfeasible. A good piece of advice is to work hard to be accepted, write the best application to be accepted and then expect not to be accepted. This way you can manage your expectations better so you will not be disappointed if you are rejected, and you will be even happier if you are accepted! 

Keep in mind that it is not personal and you are still an impressive candidate with a lot to offer. Receiving rejection letters can be disheartening but do not let it discourage you – it is meant to be and something greater is coming your way.

To conclude

Resilience is not an easy thing to achieve, but it is not impossible either. Everyone’s journey to building resilience will be different and some may find it harder than others. The biggest takeaway that you can take from this article is to go out today and do one thing that pushes you out of your comfort zone!