7 Resources for Resilience at Work
From Creating Smile Files to Embracing Picnic Poster Moments
Hello, It’s Julia, Founder of The Switchboard, a newsletter exploring the ways we communicate and connect at work and beyond. Welcome to this special Friday edition. Do you have a favorite day you like to hear from me? Reply to this email to let me know.
Today, I’m spotlighting the power of resilience with seven resources to support you, from inspirational art to actions you can take to influence your work life and those around you.
🎨 Be Positively Present
🙏🏽 Say Thank You All Year Long
📂 Create Your Smile File
🍮 Learn from The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders
💌 Buy Yourself a Greeting Card
🖼️ Embrace The Picnic Poster Challenge
🍪 Learn from "The Smart Cookie"
1. 🎨 Be Positively Present
In my conversation with Illustrator Dani DiPirro, we discussed the ways her art helps people personally and professionally. Her thought-provoking quotes encourage self-care and employee care.
The mental health of employees should be a top priority at every organization. The better people feel, the more creative, engaged, and productive they’re likely to be. My workbooks encourage people to get in touch with themselves on a deeper level, which might help them feel more inspired and motivated.my Opening Your Mind workbook is a great resource for enhancing employee wellness.
2. 🙏🏽 Say Thank You All Year Long
There’s science behind the power of expressing gratitude. It helps motivate people, encourages happiness, builds trust and cultivates kind cultures. When we say thank you, we are more likely to be resilient.
3. 📂 Create Your Smile File
A Smile File is a collection of happy memories. It includes compliments, thank-you notes, projects you’re proud of accomplishing or anything else that will make you feel a burst of joy and smile as a result. A Smile File is particularly powerful whenever you need it most, whether you’re feeling low or nostalgic.
4. 🍮 Learn from The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders
😂 Choose Your Reaction. At The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, patrons are prepared before their dining experience that what they order will likely not be what they’re served — and they must accept what’s delivered to the table with a smile, not send it back to the kitchen.
There’s a good reason for the discrepancies in the food orders — the servers are people with dementia and sometimes they simply forget or make a mistake. But, instead of being chastised, servers and patrons embrace the moment with JOMU — the joy of messing up!
5. 💌 Buy Yourself a Greeting Card
Celebrate Your Milestones. With my greeting card purchase, I had unintentionally also picked up a new “Tiny Habit” of self-appreciation. This is a story of how I embraced appreciation for myself.
6. 🖼️ Embrace The Picnic Poster Challenge
You’re assigned an ordinary project — design a picnic poster for the company’s summer employee outing. Instead of brushing it off as basic, you invest creativity into the project.
You treat the poster like a work of art. Fast-forward, years later, your picnic posters are displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and prestigious art galleries around the world. Now, that’s the epitome of taking an ordinary assignment and transforming it into an extraordinary experience.
7. 🍪 Learn from "The Smart Cookie"
While challenged initially to feel good enough, The Smart Cookie finally finds her way.
“You can be smart in many different ways. You don’t have to have the answers to every question or suddenly be great at everything all at once. You just need a chance to try all kinds of things to find out who you are and what you like to do.”
What would you add to this list as a resilience resource that’s been helpful to you? I’d love to know your suggestions in the comments.
Thanks for tuning into this edition of The Switchboard. This newsletter is shared via our community. If this article resonated — give it a heart, comment below or post it on LinkedIn. Signing off for this edition.
In the spirit of this article, The Switchboard is taking thinking weeks for the rest of the summer. I’ll see you in mid-September for content inspired by my time dreaming up ideas for what’s next. Enjoy the rest of August. - Julia
Wishing you fruitful “thinking weeks,” Julia!