Despite this, some people manage to continue in spite of these same stresses and strains, progressing ever onwards and ultimately achieving their desired goals.  The individuals who achieve their goals typically face the same stressors, but seem to have a form of stress “buffer”.  This buffer seems to allow them to endure more than others, seemingly demonstrating greater resilience and hardiness in pursuit of their goals.

This quality of hardiness whilst in pursuit of goals, or whilst under duress, was originally coined by Kobasa & Maddi in the late 1970’s when studying the employees at the Bell Telephone Company (which at the time was undergoing possibly the greatest bout of organisational upheaval in corporate history).  They found those individuals that were able to deal with the high levels of stress, when compared to those who couldn’t, typically demonstrated three key attitudes – these were Commitment, Control and Challenge – the 3 C’s of Hardiness. 

Further research by Maddi, Kobasa and their colleagues across a range of domains continually demonstrated that those individuals with the 3 C’s were consistently able to endure greater stresses and strains than those without, achieving their goals whilst others did not.  Interestingly, in their research, they found that simply having one, or two of the 3 C’s was not enough to demonstrate this resilience, it was only with all three that hardiness emerged.

Each of us has these 3 C’s within us, and we can think of them like players in “our team” – each one needs to be engaged and involved in the goal if we’re going to demonstrate resilience in its pursuit…

Commitment: This first C relates to how dedicated we are to achieving our goal.  To increase levels of commitment, you need to consider what larger goal this current goals links to, and which larger one does that link to?  As we ask these questions, we find that the chain of goals actually leads to something that is central to our sense of self – you’re effectively a “Disciple” of this larger goal.  If this is the case (as it often is), then high levels of commitment will emerge as individuals become aware of these links in the chain; 

Control:  The second C relates to having a clear understanding of what we specifically control in pursuit of this goal.  Understanding what we need to do, as well as remaining focussed upon controlling these aspects is key to enhancing hardiness.  In ancient Rome, the word “Dictator” meant someone who temporarily took power in an emergency.  To be hardy, we need to ensure that our “Dictator” takes control of the key processes that underpin achieving the outcome we desire;

Challenge: The final C relates to the opportunities that pursuing and achieving this goal will give us.  What will we learn in pursuit of this goal?  How is this situation novel and exciting for us?  This part of us is like an “Adventurer”, exploring new territory, embodying a passion of breaking new ground, learning of new worlds, and discovering something we were previously unaware of.

We need all three characters!

These three characters within each learner are a vital team.  Simply having a strong “Adventurer” without the other two will lead to rash, ill conceived goals, with little desire to take ownership over the process.  Alternatively, only having a strong “Disciple” will lead to becoming completely enmeshed with the goal, often losing a sense of self and becoming quite vulnerable if the goal (which the learner has no desire to control) changes in the slightest.  Finally, only having a strong “Dictator” leads to not wanting to waste time on effort or learning, impatience with the process and many of the typical negative “Type A” personality characteristics.