Mastering life's ups and downs

Teens need the unconditional support of parents and mentors to build their capacity for life, and resilience

- Sujata Kelkar Shetty

Life is challenging by design, and most of us show up every day despite our daily struggles and do the best we can at work and at home. Human resilience, or expanding our capacity to manage life's challenges and continue to move forward, becomes essential to ride the unpredictable and rocky waves of life with grace. It is a life skill that we can all master.

The challenges coming our way are an opportunity for learning and growth, and some challenges are particularly long and arduous. Meeting those challenges with sincere hard work and good faith allows us to expand our lives into the ones we are meant to lead. I recently met Anupam Gulati, 47, director of culinary, Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bengaluru, who has had 10-12-hour workdays almost every day of his career in hotel kitchens for the past 24 years and still loves what he does. The start of his career was challenging: His father wanted him to go to medical school, but when he didn't get through the entrance exams, he enrolled for a diploma in pharmacy. Despite registering as a pharmacist with the Delhi government, he decided to opt for hotel management and became one of the top students, winning competitions along the way.