Working Resiliently with ACT: Three Interconnected Movements

How do you keep doing what matters when work gets demanding, self-doubt creeps in, or things don’t go the way you had hoped?

In the e-learning program Doing What Matters – Resilient at Work with ACT, we use the tetrahedron of resilient working as our guiding model.

The base represents Working Resiliently. The other three faces represent three interconnected movements that support it:

Creating Space

Notice what is happening outside and inside you and make room for thoughts, feelings and discomfort—without automatically letting them determine what you do.

Making space does not mean that stress, doubt or frustration first have to disappear. You can carry them with you while choosing how you want to act.

Choosing Direction

Pause to consider what matters to you. What do you want to stand for? What do you want to contribute? What qualities do you want to bring to your work and your life?

Choosing a direction does not guarantee that things will work out. It helps you decide which way you want to move, especially when there is no simple solution.

Doing What Matters

Move in that direction. Take a step that reflects what matters to you, even when doing so feels difficult, uncomfortable or daunting.

It does not have to be a big step. Resilient working is often found in small choices: starting a conversation, setting a boundary, asking for help, trying again, or deliberately giving your attention to what is needed right now.

The Strength Lies in the Connection

These three movements do not exist in isolation. Like the faces of a tetrahedron, they are interconnected.

Sometimes, taking action requires you to first make space for stress or doubt.

Sometimes, it is only by taking action that you discover what genuinely matters to you—and your direction becomes clearer.

And sometimes, having a clear direction helps you make room for the discomfort that comes with taking a difficult but meaningful step.

So you continually move between these three faces, depending on what the situation calls for.

In the E-learning, we build the tetrahedron step by step across three sessions. Through explanation, reflection and practical exercises, you explore each movement and practise applying it to situations from your own work and everyday life.

Gradually, the three faces come together.

Not because doubt, stress or setbacks disappear, but because you learn to respond to them more flexibly.

So that, even when things get difficult, you can make space for what is there, choose your direction, and keep doing what matters.

That is resilient working.

The e-learning module Doing What Matters – Resilient at Work with ACT is available now.

For more information: E-learning

#ACT #ACTatWork #Resilience #PsychologicalFlexibility #Work #DoingWhatMatters

Images: AvO / ChatGPT