Resourcefulness is the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome challenges, find solutions, and identify alternatives by using the resources already at your disposal. It's a brilliant attribute to have in life generally, but it's also something businesses frequently look for in their employees because it's vital for the key skill of adaptability.

Here are 7 quick tips to develop your resourcefulness:

1. Be optimistic
If you have a positive outlook, you'll see challenging situations as opportunities, not threats and you'll have faith in your ability to figure it out. That gives you the energy you need to be resourceful.

2. Be tenacious
Keep going, stay focused and be determined. Resourcefulness contains the seeds of believing that there is never a good time to quit; that an answer will always be found.

3. Be resilient
Behind anyone who has ever succeeded in doing anything, from scientists to sports people, is a trail of failed attempts and rejected ideas. If you're going to keep trying, despite failing, you'll need to be resilient enough to bounce back from things and refuse to admit defeat.

4. Keep an open mind
Resourcefulness requires the opposite of ingrained thinking. In other words, you need to be open to new ideas and thoughts that differ from your own. Don't discount something just because you have before or because it doesn't line up with your beliefs.

5. Adapt and improvise
If you can't use what you've got for its intended purpose, can you use it another way? Can you adapt what you've done on a completely different project to help you on this one?

6. Be divergent
Don't restrict your thinking before you start. Be creative and imaginative, think big, blue sky and out-of-the-box. Once you have a list of ideas, however wacky, and you really can't think of any more, start narrowing them down to the best ones.

7. Ask for help
Being resourceful requires you to be honest about your limitations, because you can't be expected to know it all. Asking friends, family or colleagues for advice or even just to be a sounding board often yields surprising and productive results.

Resourcefulness is an attribute you develop by shifting your mindset, your attitude and your belief in yourself. Knowing that the keys to success are within you will also improve your self-confidence and give both your personal and professional life a big boost.