How does it feel when your heart grows cold?

I have been seeing lots of people traumatised by the loss of their jobs and their nest eggs, but also some

who were weathering the recession more easily. I thought it would be useful to quantify what sets these people apart, so I devised a tool to measure levels of resilience – the Resilience Quotient (RQ). An IQ score can tell you how intelligent someone is, and EQ (emotional quota) how good they are at handling other people, but it's their RQ which is the most useful indicator as to how they're going to fare in the next testing scenario.

I interviewed 26 highly resilient individuals and received over 300 responses to the RQ questionnaire. Five key themes became apparent that set the most resilient people apart: optimism; freedom from stress and anxiety; taking personal responsibility; openness and adaptability; and a positive orientation to problem solving.

Although the initial inspiration to write a new book about resilience came from the consequences of the financial downturn, watching people around me react to large amounts of snow is just as illustrative. For example, two of my neighbours took opposite approaches to the January snow forecast. One took it as a useful warning to ensure he was kitted out for what was to come: he bought a new larger shovel, got hold of his own supply of grit and made sure he'd be fine for a day or two in the house if needs be.

The other did very little by way of anticipating the problems, instead getting excited about the prospect of not going to work. Needless to say, the first neighbour was able to continue their daily life more or less unhindered, driving themselves to work and the shops, whereas the other was left stranded as far as transport was concerned, their car buried, and having to venture out regularly on foot for essential supplies.

In psychological parlance, the first neighbour demonstrated an internal locus of control – that is they perceive themselves as in control of their environment and their circumstances. This is a very strong indicator of psychological well-being and resilience. Those who tend to feel that they are at the mercy of events are more passive in their approach to life and are more at risk of feeling helpless.

Resilience also fluctuates through the lifespan. In their twenties, most people find themselves making decisions about work, love and home; at 30, however, they may discover some of these decisions weren't as important as they seemed, and some will need reversing. Most of us find internal locus of control at a peak in our forties, while RQ more generally continues to rise as we get older.

Remaining flexible is another key element to RQ, and who better to exemplify it than Lord Mandelson – the master of career rescue? Like him or loathe him, as we write he remains one of the most influential members of the Government.

Personal reinvention calls for a high degree of self-esteem – another core element of resilience – as well as the ability to persuade other people to share your view of yourself.

For example, if you give the impression that you never take yourself seriously, why should anyone else do so? We need to take the credit for our own successes and reflect on how we attained them.

You can make quick wins in bolstering your resilience by changing how you make decisions, cutting out procrastination, or "reframing" – a technique whereby you actively note negative or unhelpful thoughts and step back, asking yourself "what's the other side of this coin?", and forcing yourself to focus on silver linings rather than clouds.

You need to live in the present (worrying is usually about the past or the future) and doing so allows you to influence your own reactions to the hazards of daily life.

People with low resilience tend to "agglomerate" – allow lots of different problems to congeal into a single, unmanageable burden. Those with higher RQs keep them separate, prioritise them and sort them out one by one.

n Resilience: Bounce Back From Whatever Life Throws At You, by Jane Clarke and Dr John Nicholson (10.99, Crimson Publishing) is available to pre-order from Amazon, and on sale in bookshops from January 18. To order a copy from from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshire postbookshop.co.uk. Postage and packing

is 2.75.