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Thrive
The Power of Resilience
Richard Sutton • Watkins Books © 2024 • 300 pages

Take-Aways
• Resilience requires more than “grit.” Develop adaptability and a “growth mindset.”
• Resilience is associated with five personality traits: extroversion, openness, agreeableness,
conscientiousness and emotional stability.
• Create supportive environments, prioritizing care, dignity and respect.
• Become your “2.0 self” by committing to building traits associated with resilience.
• Support your brain health to increase resilience.
• Maintain a healthy weight with foods that improve immune regulation and lower inflammation.
• Reduce chronic neuroinflammation by remembering your agency and embracing positivity.
• Constructively reframe challenges and cultivate emotional distance from challenging situations.

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 Recommendation
Many companies name “resilience” as a core value, but their leaders and workers lack the traits associated
with resilience. With anxiety disorders sharply on the rise, explains best-selling author Richard Sutton,
leaders must work to create psychologically safe workplaces, building cultures rooted in values such as trust,
dignity and respect to bolster resilience among team members. Gain insights from the latest neuroscience
research about practical steps you can take to support brain health and boost your resilience as a leader,
while helping others in doing the same.

Summary

Resilience requires more than “grit.” Develop adaptability and a “growth mindset.”

People began using the word “resilience” a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what does being resilient
actually entail? The Oxford English Dictionary defines resilience as the “capacity to recover quickly from
difficulties; toughness.” While straightforward, this definition doesn’t fully encapsulate the resilience teams
and individuals need to thrive today. “Recovering” from challenges is important, but it’s backward-looking.
You must also feel prepared to weather any future storms life throws your way. Viewing resilience as mental
toughness, or “grit,” is also shortsighted. Developing long-term resilience requires adaptability. You
can’t succeed by holding fast to behaviors that may have helped in past times but no longer work in your
new context.

“Fixed behaviors, no matter how effective they are, cannot defend against the major
changes we are experiencing within the world today.”

Thus, a better definition of resilience is the capacity to embrace change and navigate stressful or challenging
situations in “real time.” Take inspiration from professional athletes: Olympic champions view pressure
as “a privilege” and a catalyst for personal growth, professional mastery and self-development. Work to
develop a “growth mindset,” a term coined by Stanford professor Carol S. Dweck. When you have a growth
mindset, you demonstrate an openness to change and learning; those with “fixed mindsets” lack this
openness. People with a growth mindset believe they can develop and improve their skills and abilities with
effort and practice. In contrast, people with fixed mindsets view their abilities as predetermined and don’t
believe they can improve their skills.

Resilience is associated with five personality traits: extroversion, openness,

agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability.

Resilient people tend to share the following personality traits, known as the “Big Five”: extroversion,
openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability. Whether you have these traits hinges,
in part, on your brain chemistry. You’ll be more likely to have the self-discipline to pursue your curiosity and
take goal-driven action if you have a healthy balance of the brain chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine.

“Regardless of one’s genetic set or the challenges we face, if we are able to create a home
that is encouraging, positive, caring, compassionate and supportive, we will be resilient.”

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 Fortunately, there are action steps you can take to modify your brain chemistry if you tend more toward
neuroticism – which is associated with self-doubt, negativity and anxiety – than the Big Five. Be mindful of
your physical environment. Reduce unhealthy exposure to pesticides, herbicides, harsh cleaning products,
cigarette smoke and plastics. When you regularly expose yourself to xenoestrogens and other harmful
substances, you can adversely affect your metabolism and stress hormones, increasing your emotional
vulnerability. Taking B vitamins also helps your brain produce the enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase
(COMT), which balances dopamine and norepinephrine.

Create supportive environments, prioritizing care, dignity and respect.

Genetics do play a role in your personality and resilience levels, but genes aren’t deterministic. Other factors,
such as early childhood experiences and adult behaviors and mindsets, influence gene expression and
resilience. For example, children with DRD4, the ADHD gene, may develop less emotional regulation and
become less resilient if they experience childhood neglect or maltreatment. But when these children grow up
in supportive, nurturing environments, they can achieve exceptional cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

Thirty percent of mental health problems today stem from adverse childhood experiences. These adverse
experiences come with a physiological cost, or “allostatic load,” that can lead to poor overall physical, mental
and emotional health, premature aging, and early mortality. Childhood trauma can stem from many sources,
including disrupted caregiving, unpredictable environmental conditions, physical threats, emotional abuse
and neglect.

“The environment we create for ourselves, our family and our teams ultimately
determines resilience.”

How childhood trauma affects people depends in large part on the type of trauma: People who experienced
physical abuse tend to have disproportional stress responses, chronic fatigue and chronic inflammation;
those who suffered emotional abuse or neglect struggle to self-calm after stressful events and have
difficulty regulating stress responses; and those who experienced “uncertainty” or “constant threat” display
heightened reactions to stress and hypervigilance.

If you experienced childhood trauma, build resilience by ensuring you spend time in healthy
environments. You deserve to feel psychologically safe in both your home and workplace. Leaders can build
team resiliency by modeling emotional regulation and consistency, creating supportive, inclusive team
cultures, encouraging autonomy and accountability, treating team members with dignity and respect, and
supporting team members’ creativity, individuality and personal growth.

Become your “2.0 self” by committing to building traits associated with resilience.

Build resilience by “tempering” – building upon your current coping mechanisms – and developing new,
unfamiliar skills, if needed. Assess how well you embody the following core traits of resilience, then identify
action steps to help you develop any areas in need of growth: cognitive flexibility and adaptability; hope
and optimism; conscientiousness; agreeableness; drive and motivation; rationality and logic; personal
values alignment; emotional regulation; goal-driven behavior; self-worth and confidence; persistence and

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 determination; commitment to personal health; access to a healthy support system; the presence of positive
coping strategies; and openness to new experiences.

“Openness is a highly complex trait that brings imagination, feelings, ideas, values
and aesthetics together with quickness, resourcefulness, competence, introspection and
reflection.”

When you cultivate openness, in particular, you don’t just increase resilience; you also boost
creativity. According to researchers from the University of Amsterdam, creativity and openness stem from
“cognitive flexibility” – your ability to change your perspective or approach when needed – and “cognitive
persistence” – the degree of focused and sustained effort you can apply to challenges. Creativity suffers
when people have high levels of anxiety. Given that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a sharp 25.6%
increase in global anxiety disorders, taking steps to reduce and manage stress in the workplace and your
personal life is crucial if you hope to support creativity and drive innovation.

Support your brain health to increase resilience.

In 2018, the University of Zurich conducted a meta-analysis of neuroimaging to understand the brains
of resilient people: Resilient individuals showed increased brain mass and better performance in the
hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex – brain regions associated with attention,
decision-making, focus, memory, learning, impulse control, planning and your moral compass. Resilience
also correlated with reduced connectivity in the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain that
controls stress and fear responses.

“On a purely foundational level, resilience is about the human brain and its ability to
successfully adapt both structurally and functionally.”

Take these steps to support your brain health and promote resilience:

• Consume omega-3 fatty acids – A daily intake of omega-3 fatty acids can reduce your perceived
stress levels in three weeks or fewer while improving cognition and brain health.
• Meditate – Meditating a cumulative total of five hours within two weeks is associated with increased
neuroplasticity and improved awareness, attention, and emotional and cognitive processing. Try
committing to 12-13 minutes of meditation per day if you’re just starting.
• Practice mindfulness – Mindfulness, which involves focusing your attention on the present moment
and cultivating deeper awareness, reduces reactivity in the regions of your brain that process stress: your
amygdala, hypothalamus and anterior cingulate cortex.
• Seek connection and support – Neuroimaging research shows that being around a supportive and
close friend, partner or family member can reduce activity in the region of your brain associated with
fear, pain, stress and threat.
• Move your body – When you get aerobic exercise (aim for three 35-50 minute sessions per week), you
increase the effects of the feel-good chemical dopamine in your brain.

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 Maintain a healthy weight with foods that improve immune regulation and
lower inflammation.

Your diet can have a direct, positive effect on resilience. To improve your immune regulation and reduce
inflammation, consider the following healthy diets:

• Mediterranean diet – There’s a research-backed connection between following this popular diet
– which centers around consuming vegetables, low-fat dairy products, nuts, fruit, olive oil, fish and
poultry, and a moderate intake of red wine – and lower levels of inflammation.
• Anti-inflammatory diet – Researchers from the University of California and the University of
Barcelona developed the anti-inflammatory diet (ITIS). The diet is similar to the Mediterranean diet but
with some crucial differences. For example, those following this diet avoid eating nightshade vegetables,
such as eggplant and prioritize fermented foods and high-enzyme fruits. This diet is designed to help
people reduce the symptoms of the inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis.
• Plant-based or vegan diet – Eliminating animal proteins (or lowering them) boosts levels of the
molecule NPY in your brain, which promotes resilience. Plant-based diets that feature a high fiber
content also support immune regulation.

Reduce chronic neuroinflammation by remembering your agency and embracing

positivity.

When you’ve faced early childhood adversity and experienced chronic stress as an adult due to low
resiliency levels, this can trigger higher levels of cytokines. This protein can cause inflammation when
out of balance. Neuroinflammation is linked with disrupted serotonin synthesis, which generates many
negative symptoms: dysregulated immune activity; disrupted sleep; and reduced motivation, focus,
attention, learning, cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation. When you experience long-term and
chronic neuroinflammation, your stress reactivity will increase, reducing cognitive performance and long-
term adaptability and resilience.

“Feelings of love, gratitude, joy, serenity, inspiration, enthusiasm, humor,

accomplishment and so on have been shown to promote a significant degree of immune
regulation and overall resilience.”

University of Rochester researchers found that people who perceived themselves as having higher levels
of agency and control over their life path had lower inflammatory markers. When you feel powerless and
lacking in agency, you’ll experience more negative emotions, such as resentment, anger and bitterness. The
following “hacks” may help you shift to a more positive mindset during periods of stress: Opt for more light-
hearted or funny television shows if you watch TV to unwind; smile more when you’re in stressful situations
to regulate stress better; and make time for activities you enjoy during stressful periods.

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 Constructively reframe challenges and cultivate emotional distance from
challenging situations.

Boost resilience by learning “cognitive reappraisal,” a vital skill that helps you reframe adverse events in a
more positive light. Reappraise challenging situations by asking yourself the following questions:

• “Is there anything I can gain or learn from this obstacle?”

• “Will this challenging situation bring me any future positive outcomes?”
• “How have I grown from this challenge?”
• “Can I find a deeper meaning in this challenge?”
• “Am I reactively or proactively dealing with this challenge?”
• “How open am I to experiencing something new?”
• “What steps can I take tomorrow to help me progress in a positive direction?”

“How we perceive the world around us tends to create that very reality. This is because
our biological, neurochemical and behavioral responses follow our perspective at that
specific point in time.”

Resist the temptation to navigate life’s challenges with unhealthy coping mechanisms such as avoidance,
rumination and repression. Try “psychological distancing” instead, cultivating emotional distance from
stressful circumstances. Focus on constructive steps forward and resist using first-person language when
thinking or speaking about the situation. For example, if you unsuccessfully pitched a client, don’t say, “I
messed this up. I rambled too much.” Instead, try something like, “This wasn’t the best pitch. Three things to
improve going forward are listening skills, stress management and greater simplicity in the messaging.”

Don’t mistake an optimistic outlook for “toxic positivity,” though. Toxic positivity refuses to acknowledge
painful experiences. You can acknowledge challenges while recognizing their power to change your life for
the better.

About the Author

Richard Sutton is the CEO of The Performance Code and the founder of Sutton Health – a global
consultancy focusing on business health and performance.He is the best-selling author of The Stress Code:
From Surviving to Thriving.

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