Resilience – key skill for the future

The last post talked about the distressing situation in the rural areas where little jobs are to be found and where a lot of the poor whites can be found. The residents subsist on disability checks and are often addicted to pills. And they all can't find jobs.

So how does one stay out of this crushing situation? Part of it may be if an area does not have much employment prospect, get out of town. There was a book written, which I haven't read, that postulated that geography in the future will determine your success. Or, if you have entrepreneurial skills, you might be able to build a business that could grow into employing people. But then you might face the conundrum of lack of skills, unless you are willing to invest.

Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant wrote a book called Option B, (and I haven't read that one either), that came about after the death of her husband. Apparently the book provides ways of overcoming life's upsets. The only thing discordant is the whole idea of a powerful woman, who has access to money and support structures to help her overcome setbacks, reeling from the death of her husband strikes me a little too maudlin (is that the right word I'm looking for?). Everyone goes through the death of

someone in their family so her case is not too special. But she has access to money and support system that others do not have. The whole thing strikes me as off, an overwrought crying from the privileged. But maybe if I read the book, I may come away with a different feeling.

Thomas Friedman, in Thank You for Being Late, offers some ways to be resilient but the perspective is from a nation/state perspective rather than an individual's perspective. He looks to Mother Nature to see how she is resilient and has come up with the following: number one is be adaptable; engage in lifelong learning; be entrepreneurial and agile (explore, invent, try and fail); thrive on diversity; power of ownership; be open to constant change; be sustainable; employ the concept of bankruptcy - let the failures fail so that the pieces can be reused elsewhere; value the virtue of patience - nothing great comes out of rushing or cutting corners. Then he took all of Mother Nature's resilient skills and distilled them further to what he proposes for us:

"(1) the ability to adapt when confronted by strangers with superior economic and military might without being hobbled by humiliation (hey, Midwest, listen to this! - My statement, not the author's); (2) the ability to embrace diversity (hey, nationalists - read this); (3) the ability to assume ownership over the future and one's own problems; (4) the ability to get the balance right between the federal and the local -  that is, to understand that a healthy society, like a healthy tropical forest, is a network of healthy ecosystems on top of ecosystems, each thriving on its own but nourished by the whole; and, maybe most important, (5) the ability to approach politics and problem-solving in the age of accelerations with a mindset that is entrepreneurial, hybrid, and heterodox and nondogmatic - mixing and coevolving ideas or ideologies that will create resilience..."  Thank You for Being Late, p 181, Chapter 10, e-book.

Since Thomas Friedman's prescriptions may not be really helpful for the average person (1, 2 and 5 might work if you know how to work it), just recently, New York Times came out with an article on building your resilience during your mid-life.  Normally, prescriptions for resilience are given on how to raise a child with resilience but it would be helpful to have something for the adults. And this article delivers in providing some really practical advice. I'm going to list them in bullet points as a way of trying to get the concepts into my brain, but I would encourage you to read the article to get the granular details.

1. Practice optimism
2. Rewrite your story (read the article to better understand this)
3. Don't personalize it
4. Remember your comebacks
5. Support others
6. Take stress breaks
7. Go out of your comfort zone

And I would add, have patience and try, try again.