“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

 ‘Resilience refers to a system’s ability to accommodate variable and unexpected conditions without catastrophic failure, or “the capacity to absorb shocks gracefully” (Foster, 1993).  Security refers to freedom from danger or fear, which is an important goal of resilience.’ – http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm88.htm

Freedom implies an absence of restraint or compulsion, liberty implies the power to choose among alternatives rather than merely being unrestrained.  It is interesting to note that liberty can be extinguished in pursuit of freedom, depending on what is meant by ‘free’.

I believe in order to choose your direction you need to know what your definition of “resilience” is, and why you want to accomplish it.  I believe the following questions will help. 

What are the systems you are dependent on and want to be less dependent upon? 

Why are you dependent on them?

Why do you want to be less dependent on them?

I did not begin with these questions in mind, but I wish I had.  It would have kept me more on task and helped prevent me from wondering down a bunch of really cool paths (from getting sidetracked), but paths I am not yet ready for because I haven’t yet completed my fundamentals.