When Harriet signed her application with NSA, becoming a National Marketing Director was her goal, her destiny and her passion. Even though she had lived in Atlanta, Georgia for more than 25 years, Harriet determined to share her vision with friends and family in her hometown—Jackson, Mississippi. She rented a conference room at the Holiday Inn and launched her business by inviting everyone she knew. More than 30 people promised to come to her presentation. After driving 7 hours from Atlanta and investing as many hours practicing her talk, two people showed up—her mother and her father.

She gave her presentation as planned.

The next day on her drive back to Atlanta, she called every person who had promised, but had failed to show up. “Hi Mary, we missed you so much last night. It was wonderful, so I’m planning to come back in two weeks to do my presentation again. Isn’t that great? I can’t wait to see you.” Two weeks later, the same conference room was full, and Jackson, Mississippi has never recovered.

Today, Harriet Sulcer is a member of the prestigious 100 Club with over ninety NMDs on her Juice Plus+ team. Harriet is the embodiment of resilience. She knows how to “bounce back”.

When we’re at the Orlando Leadership Conference this October and hear the NMD speeches, we will instantly recognize them as tales of resilience.

Resilience is different from persistence. Not just different. More critical.

Persistence is the ability to stay in the game, to not quit, to hang in there. It’s the attitude needed for the long haul—the recognition that success in our business is not a hundred-yard dash, but a marathon.

Resilience is about our capacity to bounce back from difficulties, disappointments, heartbreak and hard times.

My sense is that we can have persistence, but may be lacking in resilience.

Resilience is critical in our business and in our lives. Persistence keeps us in the race, but resilience returns us to the right path when we get knocked off course, even knocked to the ground.

Persistence can tell us not to quit, but alone it cannot stir in us the willingness and the humility to let go of our failures and mistakes, to brush off the put-downs and negative attitudes of others.

Resilience is more than just being thick-skinned.

Resilience is a matter of having such a big picture of and encouraging perspective on our lives, that setbacks and disappointments in the moment don’t cripple our resolve or shatter the vision we have of our future.

Brené  Brown is one of my favorite authors. In her bestseller, The Gifts of Imperfection, she lists the 5 most common factors in resilient people. I’ve added three more, so here are 8 key factors we will find in resilient people, 8 components which protect our potential for resilience.

1.   People with resilience are resourceful and have good problem-solving skills.

2.   People with resilience are more likely to ask for help.

3.   People with resilience hold the belief that they can do something that will help them to manage their feelings and to cope.

4.   People with resilience have the social support available to them.

5.   People with resilience are connected with others, such as family or friends.

6.   People with resilience have a sense of ownership for their choices and the outcomes of their choices. They are not “blamers” or quick to find fault in others.

7.   People with resilience have learned how to have “hopeful” self-talk.

Without “hopeful” self-talk, we hear things like. This is supposed to be easy; it’s not worth the effort. Or, This should be easier; it’s only hard and slow because I’m not any good at it.

Hopeful self-talk sounds more like: My business is simple, but not easy. This is tougher than I expected, but I can do it.

Resilience not only gives us the capacity to bounce back from hardship and discouragement, but resilience also reduces our down time, and helps us to discipline our disappointments, to let go of resentments, to accept life on its own terms. Like Harriet, we will see the possibilities and how to make lemonade out of lemons.

8.   People with resilience tend to have a deep sense of spirituality, which is not the same as being super-religious or holding to a rigid belief system.

Resilient people have a faith in a power and a purpose greater than themselves, a belief in personal connections with other people based on love and compassion.

Resilient people not only believe in the values of hard work and persistence, but they also believe that life itself is a gift, and that the blessings in our lives come to us not only by the mastery of certain skills, but also through themystery of grace, through the tender compassion of Someone who loves us and all people unconditionally.

Phillips Brooks was one of America’s great preachers in the early 19^th Century. He established schools, authored books and composed hymns. In 1868 he published a little Christmas Carol called, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Below is my favorite Phillips Brooks quote. His words can help us stay centered and grounded, and inspire us to pursue our dreams and to build our Juice Plus+ teams with humility, integrity and resilience.