Resilience is a pillar of Liberty. If I land a job that allows me the flexibility to be more involved with my family (a core value of mine), does that mean I have achieved Liberty? If I look back at the definition of liberty that I posted – liberty implies the power to choose among alternatives rather than merely being unrestrained -I would say I have not. Perhaps I have achieved freedom, (freedom implies an absence of restraint or compulsion), but do I really have the power to choose among other alternatives, or am I still at the whim of the current company I work for – merely a slave to a more comfortable grind? If I am truly resilient – able to feed and take care of my family come what may – then I truly have liberty.

Having time for the most important things in my life is my prime motivator. It is what got me started down the path to resilience in the first place. I feel as if my life is passing me by while I am toiling away in my cube doing something that doesn’t improve the planet or make a difference in people’s lives, and I’m doing it for a company that does not value or care about its workers and is not sensitive to the needs of family life. I’m a paper pusher that they will bleed dry and then cast aside without a second thought.

“The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having not time. It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else – we are the busiest people in the world.” Eric Hoffer