Word Of The Year: Resile

“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
R Jordan

What does it mean to be career resile? 

Let’s start with the basics. What does resile mean?

The origin of the word is Latin, resilire. It’s really been my word for 2020.
 
You are probably familiar with the word resilient. I think we all have proven our resiliency in the past months. Let us clarify the difference.

Resilient Versus Resile

According to Merriam-Webster the word "resilient" focuses on the ability to "bounce back" from damage, whereas "resile" generally applies to someone or something that withdraws from an agreement or "jumps back" from a stated position.
 
Do you feel that you are bouncing back in your career? Let’s dig a little deeper.
 
How about withdrawing from situations that you took for granted? Reality check! You and I have been jumping back and forth between being resilient and resile? How are these two words connected?
 
They are united by the same origin: the Latin verb resilire. Typically, you would think that two words with a common origin should share the same meaning. You would find them in different word classes or parts of speech depending on the part they play in a sentence such as an adjective or an adverb. 
 
While they seem contradictory, the two words explain what each one of us has been going through. You are resilient and resile! 

Resilient

​Resilient is an adjective. The pandemic, with every unique scenario it presented, offered you resilience as the only way to survive. The unprecedented challenges meant that perhaps you lost your job, you felt bad and was hurt immensely, yet you chose to move forward. The “new normal” forced you to get up and somehow you bounced back. And no matter what, we continue to manage to try one more time. WE are resilient!

“Like tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold innate reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient”
C DeVrye

Resile

Resile is a verb. It is the act of taking a different stance. We had to do that during the pandemic. Many in-person events that we took for granted were canceled only to be rescheduled virtually. Many schools and universities had to plan for three classroom scenarios: in-person, completely virtual or somewhere in between. We became familiar with the word furlough, where if not us, someone we knew was given a temporary leave and no one knew for how long. Resile is definitely the word of the year for all of us.

“Success needs a special attitude in a person – not to resile from one’s own ambition”
​Dr S K Kasturi

Career Resile

​How does resile fit in your career? You career resile by “jumping back” from a stated path to your ambitions. You reflect to pick up the pieces and say let me look at my career from a different angle. You strive to creatively move forward in your career while keeping your eyes on your goals. You culminate a reframed mindset that leads to your continuous career success. While you may resile from a planned career path, YOU do not resile from your ambition to succeed!

Good News

​The good news is that we have survived by taking things one day at a time. We never lost sight of our career goals. Forward is forward...it doesn’t matter how slow we go 💪 Between being resilient and resile, YOU and I have survived as well. 

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