What is P4 mental resilience training?
Mental resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from mental and physical hardship, and to adapt to new circumstances. The term may applied to organizations; however, our focus is on individual mental or psychological resilience. This ability to bounce back requires Planning, Patience, Practice, and Perseverance – or P4.
PLANNING. You cannot expect to become resilient based on a “good attitude” and a hopeful intent. Extending your resilience boundaries is hard. You extend these boundaries through accustoming yourself to greater degrees of mental and physical discomfort in an incremental, measured fashion. Rushing into a challenge blindly can lead to failure. If you are lucky, it will be “good failure” from which you learn and grow. If you are unlucky, you may experience catastrophic failure from which you may never recover. You need a Plan.
PATIENCE. You cannot expect to become a millionaire, nor a resilient person if you don’t have a head start from good genetics or family seed money. You must be prepared to put in the hours, days, weeks, months, or years to ready yourself for certain endeavours. The ability to await results without being drawn away from your plan is a challenge. This ability to wait is enhanced by practicing longer periods in mindful meditation without attachment to the result. Being “in the present moment” clears your mind of distractions and permits focus on the essential elements of a problem – as opposed to what you think they are. Athletes refer to “being in the zone.” No-one ever remains in the zone without patience.
PRACTICE. An old Russian proverb states that “Repetition is the Mother of Learning.” Old habits must be discontinued. New habits must be formed through establishing new neural pathways in the brain. Experts disagree on how long this process takes, perhaps in part due to individual variability. Estimates range from 21 days to to 90 days to ensure permanent change.
PERSEVERANCE. Perseverance is patience writ large. Many changes require continual reinforcement – perhaps over a lifetime. You don’t suddenly arrive at destination “Resilience” and step off the train. Habits must be so engrained that they become your instinctive reaction as opposed to having to muul it over before acting.
