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RESILIENCY = CONTINGENCY PLANNING
Be prepared. I may have said this before but it bears repeating: I am more of a resilientist than a true prepper or survivalist. However there is a lot of crossover, so much so that at times it is hard to tell the difference. I think my distinction between them lies in the purpose or approach of each. A prepper is planning for disaster(s) that they feel are eminent, whereas a resilientist is looking at having more liberty and freedom in their life whether a crisis occurs or not; and a survivalist is prepping for the worst possible scenario to happen. Another difference between a prepper and a resilientist is this: a resilientist is trying to develop personal liberty with a community mindset, whereas a prepper has more of a soloist mindset.
There is a great sense of security and peace of mind that comes with knowing you are prepared for various hardships even if it is highly unlikely that you will ever need those preparations. But there are some scenarios that aren’t terribly unlikely, like tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms. They happen to someone on a yearly basis, could your family survive it? The loss of a loved one is almost never a national or international disaster, but to the family it happens to, this event can be defined as a disaster or crisis because it could be devastating on a personal level. Could your family survive it? Something as routine as a job loss can be a crisis or disaster to some families. This is where thinking outside the box – seeing things from different perspectives – comes into play. Some of the steps taken in becoming resilient will help you survive these seemingly mundane “disasters”. Though unsexy and unsensational, they are the most likely types of crisis to occur.
So here’s a good way to start that can help you to show your wife that this is actually a good thing you are doing. Go to the dollar store and buy some $1 toilet paper, $1 toothpaste, and any other $1 household consumable and stash them somewhere that you can use as a storage place for all things like this – but don’t let her know you’ve done it and stash it someplace she won’t find it! Then one evening when y’all are out of toilet paper and she is hating the thought of having to go to the store to get some more, come to the rescue by retrieving your stash of tp. Be sure you do this without her seeing where your stash place is! Let her know you picked some things up to keep around for storm preparedness. After a few times she will start to see the benefit of having household items stockpiled.
RESILIENCE IS A PILLAR OF LIBERTY
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
SUCCESS?
SUCCESS: The progressive realization of worthwhile goals – "48 Days to the Work You Love" – Dan Miller
I ran across the following journal entry I had made back in November, and it seemed very congruent with where I am mentally right now:
- I am reading the book "48 Days to the Work You Love", and it talks about 7 areas of life that should be considered when evaluating "success": Financial, Physical, Personal Development, Family, Spiritual, Social, Career. Not all success is financial despite what our society crams down our throat. Many who have achieved financial success have sacrificed their health and family in its pursuit, and are not happy. In my mind they have wasted their life, or at least wasted the time in which they have focused on nothing but financial success. What good is it? It is a means to an end, a tool and nothing more.
THERE AREN’T ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY
Tonight my kids are spending the night with friends, and because it is the middle of the week instead of the weekend I got a real feel for what it is going to be like when they have all moved on. It wasn’t quite a loneliness that settled on me, perhaps more of a melancholy. Going through the normal midweek routine without the usual kid activities, knowing there would be no interruptions or conflict or bedtime hugs or anything, was very sobering. It didn’t feel right; the house is supposed to be full of life; full of love and relationships. It just drove home how precious – and temporary – this time in my life is.
It made me thing that we have the concept of retirement backwards. We should be “retired” while the kids are young, and then pursue our careers when they have grown, rather than retiring once they are gone and the demands of life are fewer; with nothing but time to putter around in an empty house. All the family bonds and relationships, and all the demands of parenthood having taken place when we had the least amount of time and energy to deal with them.
This is why I need to break free, this is why I need liberty. There is nothing more fulfilling than relationships filled with caring and love, than feeling connected and accepted and wanted and needed. If I am going to take control of my life and how I spend my time, my to do list must start getting shorter. I’m not saying I’m just going to start ignoring things, but the number of things that are recurring must start getting smaller. This means finding the time to deal with them, which means I can’t continue giving the best of myself to something that sees me as an expendable commodity to be strip mined; as a resource to be exploited.
I must make the time now so I don’t find myself at some point in the future looking back with regret that I didn’t get to enjoy a rich family life while still young enough to make the most of it. Of course I need to provide for my family, but I must evaluate what it is I am providing them with. Am I really getting (and giving) the best of what life has to offer?
WORK IT OUT
I am having difficulty defining what is most important to me and why, as it seems there are several things that all overlap, or more precisely, intertwine. I think the underlying theme of it all is that I don’t want to be at the mercy of others. Specifically the corporations. I don’t want to be a victim. I don’t want to be helpless if we survive a natural disaster (tornado or power outage), and I want the liberty to make my own decisions, and to spend my time the way I see as most beneficial.
I can’t seem break free because my current cost of living is just too high, and I can’t seem to pursue a remedy to that because the demands on my time are just too many. Toil and slavery are the two words that come to mind. Nonetheless I am determined. Since all I can manage right now are baby steps, that is what I will take.
For instance, I can commit to 15 minutes to exercise in day, I may be able to do more on some days, but I can’t commit to that so 15 minutes is my goal. However I make it the most effective 15 minutes I can, so I do 15 minutes of HIIT two or three days a week. I supplement that by taking the stairs, parking farther away, etc.
So how does exercise fit in with Liberty and Resilience? My health is paramount. It is the one thing that will stay with me regardless of my circumstances. I must be in good health to stay out of the sick care system as much as possible, reduce the need for meds, enable my body to do the work it needs to do to support my lifestyle choices, and to not be burden on my family in the future.
So Here is my Road to Liberty and Resilience Action Journal:
- Tabata workout – Heart rate max=162; recovery heart rate=126
- Re-filed taxes. Actually getting a return this year and it should be enough to pay off another credit card. That’s right, no frivolous spending; there’ll be time for that once I am free.
- Spent about 30 minutes making some of the statements on my resume and linked in profile stronger
SuburbanResilience 