Resourcefulness: The Mindset That Empowers You to Overcome Any Challenge

According to the Oxford Dictionary, resourcefulness is defined as the ability to quickly and cleverly overcome difficulties. Since life presents daily challenges, cultivating awareness of and actively increasing our personal resourcefulness empowers us to navigate obstacles with greater ease, confidence, and grace.

While I appreciate the simplicity of this definition as a great starting point for understanding resourcefulness, it’s important to zoom out and see the bigger picture of what it truly means to be resourceful and how we can more easily access both our learned knowledge and innate abilities exactly when we need them.

What Is Resourcefulness?

Resourcefulness is a state of tapping into your internal resources:

• Your intellect and problem-solving skills

• Your learned knowledge through education and life experience

• Your intuition that inner knowing that guides you

Together, these elements ignite your creativity, helping you bring all your resources to the surface in everyday life.

“Tap into resourcefulness; unleash creativity; progress will follow.” – Anonymous

In coaching, a core principle is that everyone already has the skills, abilities, and creativity within themselves to achieve their goals and dreams. The role of coaching is to help clients access this deep well of experience, intuition, and knowledge to create a powerful state of resourcefulness.

Resourcefulness vs. Willpower: A Common Misunderstanding

From my experience in business and life, we often confuse resourcefulness with a white-knuckled, willpower-driven approach to goal achievement, what might look like being resourceful from the outside. 

While setting goals is important and can be part of resourcefulness, the two are not the same. True resourcefulness is a way of living that grants you easy access to the full power of your mind, body, and spirit.

Being in a state of resourcefulness puts you in the driver’s seat of your life, allowing you to consciously direct your creative energy. It’s about knowing when to lean in, when to step back, and when to seek support as the situation demands. 

Living resourcefully means striving for balance, avoiding extremes and tuning into what’s truly important and needed in each moment. It’s about knowing when to push forward and when to rest for optimal growth and well-being.

If simply setting bigger and bigger goals were the key to life, we would have all achieved our hopes and dreams by now. I believe that striving to be our most resourceful in each moment leads to a fulfilling life, one where all our inner resources rise to the surface, and we build deep self-trust that propels us forward.

Resourceful state = inner peace and trust

What Gets in the Way of Being Resourceful?

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

We often confuse resourcefulness with determination. Many of us have built our careers through a single-minded focus on achieving goals, a mindset that may have been shaped in childhood. While this approach isn’t inherently bad and has often led to success, it’s important to recognize the difference.

For example, this focus might look like striving for high grades in school, getting into the right college, and securing a high-paying career. For me, it was about working hard, climbing the corporate ladder, getting promoted, and achieving professional success.

On the surface, this relentless focus seems admirable. But what price do we pay along the way? Our personal health, relationships, and even opportunities to pursue something more fulfilling can be sacrificed. When climbing the ladder of success, we must ask: Is the ladder leaning against the right wall?

This single-minded focus often stems from scarcity or fear, the belief that climbing higher proves our value to the world. Each step up becomes proof that we are capable, smart, and good providers. Much of our identity becomes wrapped up in chasing the next big achievement.

So, what gets in the way of true resourcefulness? It’s old patterns that once signaled success but now trap us in cycles of taking things personally, comparing ourselves to others, and fearing we’re missing out if we stop climbing, even if the ladder isn’t supporting the life we truly want..

Being Triggered: How Emotional Reactions Impact Resourcefulness

Being triggered can significantly reduce our resourcefulness. Emotional triggers are reactions that are disproportionate to the actual stimulus. When triggered, we might shut down, become angry, or take things personally. Everyone experiences their own version of being triggered.

The moment we become triggered, our access to intelligence, inner wisdom, and creativity is greatly diminished. Most of us can recall times when we reacted to triggers and later regretted what we said or did.

When discussing resourcefulness, it’s important to honestly acknowledge how easily we can be set off. Sometimes it’s as simple as a wrong look, an unanswered email, or perceived unprofessional behavior in the workplace…the list can go on and on. These triggers can be subtle yet powerful, undermining our ability to respond resourcefully in the moment.

How to Cultivate Resourcefulness as a Mindset

“A resourceful person will always make opportunity fit his or her needs.” – Napoleon Hill

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but life is full of challenges, whether in your career, finances, family life, or health (both yours and your loved ones’). It’s rare to experience moments when everything is perfectly aligned across all areas. The reality is that ups and downs are a constant, and the chance to feel triggered will always be present.

So, how can we maintain a resourceful state of mind when life gets tough and it inevitably will?

Shifting your mindset towards growth in difficult situations

One of the most powerful ways to cultivate resourcefulness is to see every difficult situation as an opportunity for learning and growth. Challenges often bring us to a crossroads: one path leads to triggered frustration, while the other offers a chance for personal development. The choice is yours. By consciously choosing learning and growth, even when it means stepping back to observe your own triggers, you strengthen your ability to stay resourceful and avoid repeating old patterns.

Live Guided by Your Core Values

When you take the time to connect deeply with your core values, your decisions are guided by inner wisdom rather than external pressures. Living from your authentic self helps you establish healthy boundaries and communicate more clearly with others, fostering respect and understanding in your relationships.

Practice Empathy: See the Humanity in Others

Recognize that everyone faces their own struggles, even if they differ from yours. When people feel truly seen, they are more likely to cooperate and respond positively. Remember, being yourself is a full-time job, and it’s a common mistake to think you could live someone else’s life better than they can. Stay humble and compassionate, human experience is complex, and everyone is doing the best they can with what they know. Try to meet them where they are.

Embrace Challenges as Opportunities to Contribute

Heck, get excited when you’re called to contribute, whether personally or professionally, to a situation that might be less than awesome. Your unique contribution could be the key that turns things around. But to make the maximum impact, you need to bring your absolute best self to the challenge: all your intelligence, creativity, and inner knowing. And hey, let’s not forget to add a generous dash of compassion to the mix.

Imagine if every time a challenge showed up, instead of feeling dread, you actually got excited. Your whole energy would shift. You’d flash that knowing smile, a glint in your eye, and say, “Let’s get to work! This is an interesting problem to solve, and I’ve been preparing my whole life to contribute to this.”

“A resourceful person can see opportunity when others only see obstacles.” -Garrett Gunderson

Dave Fyfe

Success Coach