Resilience Is Romantic: Loving the Process, Even When It Hurts

By: Lee Anderson | Founder, Diversity Partnerships, LLC

February is often filled with red roses, heart-shaped candies, and Instagram-worthy romance. But for many of us, Valentine’s Month isn't about chocolates and candlelit dinners—it's about choosing ourselves. It’s about reflecting on what it means to love the life we’re building, especially when it doesn't look like what we imagined. In the spirit of authenticity, I want to talk about something less sparkly but equally beautiful: resilience.

The Love Story with Yourself

A few years ago, I found myself at a breaking point. I had just come through a storm—personal loss, career shifts, and the kind of emotional exhaustion that doesn’t show up in a photo. I remember sitting alone on Valentine’s Day, not because I didn’t have love around me, but because I didn’t feel it within me.

But then something simple, and sacred, happened. I started journaling about past seasons where I felt buried, only to realize that every single time, I had bounced back. Not because things magically changed overnight, but because I kept showing up—bruised, praying, learning, growing.

That night, I wrote this in my journal:

That moment didn’t change everything, but it changed me. It reminded me that resilience is a love letter to your future self.

Loving the Process

We glamorize the breakthrough, but the process? Whew. That’s where the real work—and the real love—lives.

1. The process is crying in your car after an interview that didn’t go the way you hoped.
2. The process is starting over—again—with shaky faith but steady feet.
3. The process is choosing to get up, even when you’d rather retreat.

• Valentine’s Month can be tough for those healing, rebuilding, or waiting. But what if we made it about something deeper than romantic love? What if we honored the love it takes to believe in your own comeback story?

• Resilience as a Practice

• If you’re in a place where you feel stuck, tired, or unseen—I see you. And more importantly, you’ve seen you through every hard season before. That means you have proof of your own power.
• Try this:
• 1. Write down three times you bounced back when you didn’t think you would. Let those memories hold you.
• 2. Celebrate the small wins. Did you drink water? Answer that hard email? Show up for yourself? That counts.
• 3. Speak love into your process. You don’t have to be “there” yet to be worthy of love, rest, or joy.
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• This February, fall in love with the part of you that keeps going. The version of you who dares to dream again. The one who believes, even when the odds say otherwise.
• Because that version?
• That’s the real love story.
• And you, my friend, are the hero.
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• Looking for ways to pour into yourself or your team? Diversity Partnerships offers workshops, coaching, and leadership development rooted in equity, empathy, and empowerment. Let’s grow together.