Second Wave Resilience – Finding Strength Beyond Adrenaline
Updated: Sep 27, 2025
Stephen Vaughan is a leadership development expert with over 20 years of experience. He specialises in designing & delivering bespoke programmes & coaching sessions & is due to complete his PhD, Resilience in Leaders, in 2025.
Stating the obvious, things are tough. Right now, it feels as though many of the foundations we rely on are under pressure all at once. Customer expectations are rising faster than ever, commercial pressures are tightening, and employee engagement is being tested in ways we haven’t seen before. These challenges aren’t isolated, they interact with and compound one another, creating a sense of fatigue across organizations and individuals alike.
I know you likely have your own methods, your go-to ways of supporting others, motivating your teams, or finding balance for yourself. But just in case, I’d like to offer something different to consider.
When we first face adversity, a big change, or an unexpected challenge, our natural instinct is to power through it. Most of us rely on adrenaline, that surge of energy and nervous excitement that sharpens our senses and helps us act quickly. Adrenaline gives us the drive to cope, to push through, and sometimes even to emerge stronger and wiser on the other side.
But here’s the catch, adrenaline is designed for novelty. It works best when something feels new, unpredictable, and urgent. The first time we confront a problem, we can ride that wave of heightened energy. The second time it shows up, we can still muster a burst of effort. But when the same provocation keeps appearing, day after day, month after month, our minds recognize the pattern. The novelty wears off. The adrenaline doesn’t arrive in the same way. Eventually, it just stops. We’ve seen it all before, and our bodies don’t respond with the same urgency.
This is why, if your method of support is simply to rally the troops, to ask for “just one more push,” it works beautifully the first time. People will give it willingly. They’ll bring that spark, that extra commitment. But the second time? It feels harder. And the third? Even less. Not because people don’t care, but because it’s boring. The problem has lost its freshness. We’ve heard it, seen it, dealt with it already. The refrain becomes, here we go again.
So what do we do when adrenaline is no longer the fuel that gets us through?
That’s where a different approach is needed, what I call second wave resilience.
Second wave resilience is about endurance. It’s about stamina. It’s the kind of strength that doesn’t rely on temporary bursts of energy but instead on a steadier, deeper foundation. Think of it as moving from sprinting to long-distance running. When challenges become repetitive, endurance, not excitement, is what sustains us.
Supporting people through this phase means shifting how we think about motivation and resilience. Instead of demanding another surge of effort, help build skills and mindsets that make endurance possible. That might look like encouraging people to focus on staying positive, not in a forced or superficial way, but by genuinely helping them notice what’s working, what they can control, and where small wins are possible.
It might mean prompting them to search for opportunities hidden within familiar problems. If a challenge is recurring, perhaps it’s signaling that old approaches aren’t enough anymore. Encourage your team to question assumptions, challenge long-standing norms, and resist the temptation to accept “the obvious.”
This is the moment to cultivate creativity in dealing with what feels repetitive. Fresh eyes and fresh ideas can turn “same old, same old” into something new. It could be a small tweak in process, a shift in mindset, or a reimagined way of working together. The key is to replace the lost energy of adrenaline with the steady fuel of curiosity, optimism, and innovation.
In short, we need new ways to deal with old problems. Endurance is not about simply hanging on, it’s about adapting, evolving, and finding ways to move forward without burning out. That’s what second wave resilience really means, sustaining ourselves and each other not just for the crisis of today, but for the challenges that are sure to come again tomorrow.
Read more from Stephen Vaughan
Stephen Vaughan, Leadership Development Expert
Stephen Vaughan is a world-class facilitator, executive coach, and MD of Fabric Learning. With a background in professional sports and academics, and now over 20 years of experience in learning and development, he specialises in designing & delivering bespoke development programmes for organisations ranging from small not-for-profits to large multinational organisations all over the world. The majority of his work centres around leadership, whether that be executive boards, high potentials, or first-time leaders, empowering individuals to achieve increased performance & results, deliberately encouraging a sense of fun, which makes effective learning a far more enjoyable experience. He describes himself as a Pracademic.
