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DB post 2

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Life today is full of Stress.  In the military, there will always be times a Soldier or even we become stressed as leaders. It can be due to the workload an individual has at work or something that has happened in the family household. Many things can cause stress, such as short suspenses, unrealistic expectations, over-commitment of time or finances and even relationship with other people. According to Department of the Army (2019), “Stress is a major part of leadership conditions. Major sources of stress include an ever-changing geopolitical situation, operational stress and related fears, the rapid pace of change, and the increasing complexity of technology” (8-36).  This is so true for the National Guard, because we have different jobs other than the military.  National Guard Soldiers have civilian jobs and only train with their units once a month and two or three weeks out of the year. The Army technology is always changing and coming up with new things. We are giving young Soldier and Leaders more tasks to accomplish with little time. This itself will cause stress in the Units in the National Guard, because of the moving fast pace. Us as leaders need to reward Soldiers for doing great things during stressful times. We also need to spread workloads evenly and not just to one or two Soldiers, just because they are the subject matter experts.  

            So with the heavy stressful time we have, we have to learn how to be resilient. According to Everyday Health, “Resilience is typically defined as the capacity to recover from difficult life events.  It’s your ability to withstand adversity and bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns” (Hurley, 2019). In the military we have to learn to be resilient, because of the fast pace we move in and the jobs we have. Soldiers work with different peers that might have different opinions and work strategies and sometimes that produces stress at work. The Army gives us tools to be resilient, such as physical, emotional, social, spiritual, family and leader resources we can rely on. In addition, each unit has an officer that has been Master resiliency trainer (MRT) to teach other Soldiers about resilience.

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