Adopt an Elastic Mentality if You Want to Bounce

My dad taught me Physics when I was at school. Although science wasn’t really my thing, I tried my best. It was the lessons about energy that fascinated me most. It started my fascination with adopting an elastic mentality in life.

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another” Albert Einstein. The law of conservation of energy – the First Law of Thermodynamics (admittedly, I had to look that one up).

One of my favourite childhood pastimes was throwing a ball against a wall in the garden. I played scrum-half in rugby, so it was mostly for practising my passing, but sometimes I would hone my reactions with one of those fantastically elastic bouncy balls.

The elasticity of a bouncy ball means that on impact, the ball absorbs the energy of the collision and then converts it back into the kinetic energy of movement (in the opposite direction), so it bounces back. I am sure that my dad would put it better, and I hope he isn’t reading this. Still, essentially a bouncy ball takes the hit, the kinetic energy is transformed into internal energy. The ball then converts that energy to rebound. There are many factors involved. To give a simple example, a falling book doesn’t do this because the kinetic energy of the fall dissipates into the floor.

So, in simple terms, elasticity is about absorbing the energy during impact and converting it into positive movement afterwards.

Elastic mentality bounce

That is exactly what we picture ourselves doing when we “bounce back” from a setback.

Something happens that stops us in our tracks for a while, but rather than let that energy dissipate or convert into something more harmful such as depression, we have an opportunity to internalise the hit and transform it into something positive. It is my experience that the sooner we bounce back, the better, so as long as that energy is used in a positive direction, you can make the most of a bad situation.

Some of the disappointed Welsh rugby fans may have decided to go for a hard run after their agonising semi-final defeat to South Africa. A few more might even have decided to support England in the final. On the other hand, many will have drowned their sorrows with the thoughts of what might have been.

Bouncing back isn’t always easy but converting a negative into a positive is the cornerstone of an abundant life.

If you mentally absorb the negative energy (rather than allow it to dissipate around you), the more energetic the rebound. Unpleasant stuff happens regularly, so you might as well adjust your attitude towards it.

The relevancy to any job search is clear.

There will be rejections and disappointments. When your only true “win” is that eventual job, you take a few hits until you get there. If you have an elastic mentality, you can convert the energy of those hits into a more positive direction, and you won’t lose vital momentum.

Bounce your way to your dream job (or any other goal in life).

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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists. 

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).