In the context of wellbeing, personal resources refer to the internal characteristics, strengths, and assets we have as individuals which contribute to our ability to adjust to, and cope with, adverse situations and effectively recover back to a place of wellbeing.
Personal resources encompass various factors:
- Self-efficacy: the belief in one's ability to successfully accomplish tasks and achieve goals.
- Optimism: a positive outlook and expectation for the future. This is because it impacts the extent to which we perceive challenges as manageable and the approach we take to them
- Resilience: the ability to cope with setbacks, learn from experience, adapt to change and maintain wellbeing.
- Social support: the maintenance of supportive relationships and social networks that can provide emotional, instrumental and informational support to help buffer against the impact of stressors.
- Emotional intelligence: the ability to recognise, understand and manage our emotions and navigate social relationships effectively.
- Cognitive flexibility: the capacity to adapt one's thinking, perspectives and problem solving strategies to consider alternative viewpoints, generate creative solutions and overcome cognitive biases.
- Sense of purpose: having a personal sense of direction, goals and values that gives a life a sense of meaning.
Strengthening these personal resources have been shown to provide a 'protective factor' for individual wellbeing. It is essential to recognise that personal resources alone cannot and should not be the sole focus of any approach to workplace wellbeing and must be balanced with efforts to address systemic factors (see stress management).
However, when included as part of a holistic approach, which includes efforts to address the primary causes of workplace stress, providing information and resources to support individuals to understand and strengthen these resources form an important part of a workplace wellbeing strategy.