applies to nearly every aspect of our lives: to an investment portfolio, a home, a garden, a career, or a personal relationship.
Each of these things is said to be more resilient if it is able to weather stormy times (literally or figuratively) well.
To the textbook definition we can also add the concept of redundancy. Nature teaches us that resilience means having multiple ways of meeting any particular need.
Laying several eggs in a nest instead of just one is an example of resilience through redundancy. So is the demonstrated ability of Central Park squirrels to eat anything from acorns to cheese popcorn to hot dogs as compared to the giant panda which can only eat one food type, bamboo. Squirrels breed rapidly, pandas rarely. You might have noticed, there are a lot more squirrels than pandas in the world.
Similarly, wetlands can absorb a lot more water than a concrete ditch because wetlands have untold crevices and layers of spongy material. They act as a natural backup water storage system for storing the rains when they come.
Extending nature’s cue to our home, we note that having several methods and systems involved in heating and cooling your house makes you more resilient because you’re able to switch across energy fuel types if one becomes scarce or expensive. As an example, you could heat with gas, wood, and passive solar design, and cool with A/C and better window shades. Even better, reduce your need for heating and cooling by investing in thicker insulation throughout your home. With a hybrid system like this, you’ll spend less over the long haul and be able to more easily meet your family’s needs compared to someone who hasn’t made these investments.
So to the dictionary definition of resilience, we add:
3. Having multiple, redundant means of meeting one’s needs; having buffers and stored resources; and the ability to switch easily between different potential solutions.
This means that resilience cuts against our current so-called ‘modern’ or ‘superior’ way of life because so much of the developed world lifestyle revolves around micro-specialization, lean inventories, and just-in-time fulfillment. While dazzlingly cost efficient when everything goes as planned, these approaches are vulnerable to unexpected disruptions. Did you know that most cities only have between three and five days worth of food on hand in their grocery stores? If for any reason the constant stream of trucks resupplying those stores should halt, as happened to coastal New Jersey when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, then shortages, hunger, and social unrest can quickly follow.
Take a moment to ask yourself what items in your life you’re counting on being there in the future, especially in times of need. What would happen to you if they weren’t? How resilient are you?
THE 8 PRINCIPAL FORMS OF RESILIENCE
If your answer is Not as resilient as I’d like to be, don’t worry. Nearly everyone else on the planet is in the same boat. What matters more, what’s truly going to decide your fate, are the steps you take from here on out.
Which is why we’ve created this book. It provides tangible, practical guidance on exactly how to build greater resilience into your life.
But first, you need a more detailed, concrete understanding of the principal component parts of resilience.
We’re going to use a framework inspired by the work of AppleSeed Permaculture’s Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua (http://www.regenterprise.com), as well as the work of coaching pioneer Thomas Leonard, which we’ve modified to fit the purposes of this book. The framework is based on the observation that, for humans, resilience is attained through the build up of resources and capabilities—referred to in aggregate as capital – across 8 discrete categories of life. This capital has real value, and the capital in one category can usually be exchanged for capital in another. We’ll explain this idea further in a moment, just note for now that it’s an important feature.
Thinking of these components as capital to be earned, exchanged and invested is a very helpful—and ultimately very accurate—way to mentally understand the larger concept of resilience.
Financial capital is the one with which most people are most intuitively familiar. It’s our money, our stock and bond portfolios, the income we receive from our jobs, and our expenses and debts.
Social capital involves our private and public relationships. These are the relationships that nourish and guide us, the less intimate relationships we have with people with whom we exchange favors, and the connections that we can draw upon to meet our needs and offer our goods and services.
Living capital is the land, the trees, the water, the soil, and the animals around us. It’s our bodies as well – our health, fitness level, and physical abilities.
Material capital refers to tangible possessions such as homes, bridges, building materials, tools, stored food, computers, solar arrays, and cars.
Knowledge capital includes the things that we know and our expertise in applying that knowledge.
Emotional and spiritual capital is measured by our personal capacity to roll with the punches, to weather inner storms and outer dramas while remaining calm and centered.
Cultural capital is defined by the stories, songs, and habits of the local population we live among. Some communities react well to adversity and some do not. The difference is a measure of the cultural capital of each.
And finally we have time as a form of capital, which refers to the precious, ever-depleting commodity that we need to allocate wisely if we wish to inhabit a future filled with prosperity and abundance.
We like how this framework places equal emphasis on each of its eight components. It steers us away from the widely held and untrue belief that if you simply have a lot of money, or a well-stocked retreat property in the boondocks, you can handle anything that life may throw at you. To be truly resilient—to be prosperous—you need depth in all eight forms of capital.
So becoming more resilient may involve installing solar panels on your house, or spending time at an intensive spiritual retreat. Or it may involve an in-depth recalculation of your financial position or a new nutrition and exercise regime. For some it will mean acquiring new knowledge and skills, and others new tools to increase their emotional range and literacy, or perhaps a little bit of all of these. It all depends on your personal circumstances and goals.
To help you meet your goals, we’re going to employ the 8 Forms framework throughout the rest of the book. We’ll show how you can take a form of capital that you happen to have in relative abundance and exchange it for a form of capital that you lack. What might this look like? Perhaps using your professional expertise to create a second income stream, or trading money for compost. Again, your personal situation will define the specifics of the course you take.
To help you chart that course, we have dedicated a full chapter to each of the eight forms, filled with insights and best practices we’ve collected on how to build capital in each. All you need to do is follow the steps.
INSUFFICIENT BUT NECESSARY
When it comes to these steps, many of the individual ones you take will likely feel insufficient in and of themselves, yet it’s important to understand that they are necessary in aggregate.
For
