Resilience is like a muscle—we have to target it and actively build on it for it to grow. We have to be able to recognize that life isn’t always rosy and adapt with a stronger mindset that will ultimately lead to a happier life.

In order to help foster more resilience within you, here are three fantastic tips from bestselling author Neil Pasricha.

Find a weird hobby and learn something new

Although it may sound completely unrelated, Pasricha believes that participating in unconventional, “weird” hobbies is the key to increasing resilience. Learning something new increases your learning rate, which Pasricha says is a giant indicator of resilience.

Having totally unrelated side hobbies actually increases the incongruence in your thinking and can even spur new ideas and insights into your main project or job.

Don’t be afraid to fail

When it comes to learning new things, Pasricha advises that failure is crucial for increasing resilience. It’s these mini failures that we experience when we try new activities that prepare us for any bigger, life-altering failures that may come our way.

Pasricha compares these little failures to bicep curls. When we do bicep curls, our muscles actually tear slightly. It’s the process of rebuilding the muscles that causes them to get bigger and stronger—a process known as autophagy.

See your failures as a positive steppingstone

The failures that we go through, even if they’re relatively huge, are in service of a larger end goal that we just aren’t aware of. Whether you take this advice in a spiritual way or not, if you view your failures as steppingstones toward a positive end goal, you’ll garner the resilience you need to keep moving. Succeeding feels good, but it’s from our failures that we learn the most.

If you want to learn more how to harness resilience, check out this article with more tips and tricks.