Resilience 101: The Full Story

1. 1/MENTAL RESILIENCE: 2. Build empty time and empty space. The former where nothing has to be done; the latter where nothing overwhelms. 3. Read outside your domain to exercise the mental muscle. 4. Always be on some kind of course. Art, ancient Greek, typography, the guitar: to keep the brain sharp and flexed. 5. Give yourself a daily head massage. Even better still, get someone else to give you one. Even better still give someone a head massage. 6. Decide to be smarter. 7. Get outside and look up and around. Be appreciative. 8. Take on a mental challenge. Manage the fear. Do it. Push through to jubilation. 9. Slow down. Listen. No longer hit with ferocity the 'close door' elevator button. 10. Remember things: the first ten elements of the periodic table. 11. Know things: the population of India. 12 "Life doesn't get easier nor more forgiving. We get stronger and more resilient" Steve Maraboli. 13. 2/PHYSICAL RESILIENCE: 14. Move. Walk, climb stairs, stand: an excellent and natural place to start. 15. Run. Occasionally, with good form and once strong. 16. Get strong. Many lower back problems are not the chair: it's because we have lost strength in our core. 17. Get a coach: to teach you good form with running and lifting. 18. Lift some weights to strengthen muscle and maintain bone. 19. Stay mobile. Read Kelly Starrett and Katy Bowman. 20. Seek variety. The answer is rarely 'the gym'. 21. The answer is something you enjoy and from kayaking to cycling to hiking to gardening: it's out there. 22. Move and move and move. And stand and stand and lift and carry and climb. And jump. Rather than sit on a cycle at the gym reading a novel for 50 minutes. 23. Get cold. Get wet. Toughen up. 24. "hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else expects of you" Henry Ward Beecher. 25. 3/PERSONAL COMPASS & CLARITY OF PURPOSE 26. Our Personal Compass sets and gives us direction. 27. There are six compass points: career, wellness, personal finance, relationships, fun and contribution. 28. For career: chase that which provides purpose rather than (simply) money. 29. For wellness: meditation x exercise x nutrition x sleep. 30. For personal finance: chase quality of life rather than (simply) standard of living. 31. For relationships, if one is important, give it attention. 32. For fun: what is the point if you are not having fun? 33. For contribution: give back; it keeps you grounded which keeps you content which keeps you happy. 34. Review and readjust the compass once per month. 35. For much, much more detail try You, Only Better. 36 "a good half of the art of living is resilience" Alain de Botton 37. 4/PRODUCTIVITY & THE DIGITAL INTERRUPT. 38. Productivity is both top down. Set your personal compass. 39. And bottom up: a set of practical tactics, exercised daily. 40. The Forward View. Ask what's coming up tomorrow, next week, next month. Anticipate and reduce work-load surprises. 41. The Break, break and date. Take big, chunky items ('write strategic review') and break them down so they become time and brain friendly.42. Focus on the Vital Few i.e. items which give value towards progressing your direction (see 1). This approach will slowly but surely reduce the Trivial Many. 43. Allow your Personal Compass review to generate items for a Master List. What you have to do, want to do, work and home. Avoid the seductive attractions of the To Do list: short term, urgent quick fix, quick tick. 44. All productivity is what and when. What is the Personal Compass/ Master List combo. When requires the biggest wall planner you can get. The small screen of the phone will pull you into daily planning which is actually reacting. 45. More help? Try Paradoxical Productivity and/or You Only Better. 46. " there comes a time in your life when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who do not. Life is too short to be anything but happy." Jose N Harris. 47. 5/BEING THE BEST VERSION OF OURSELVES & PERSONAL BRAND 48. Your brand=what people say about you when you are not in the room. 49. Decide to raise your standards for no other person than yourself. No more 'OK'. 50. Consistently excellent. 51. Start a programme of collecting feedback from all those you work with any capacity. Try the power question: if there were one thing I need to work on, what is it? 52. Act upon the themes 'your time-keeping'. 53. Start some projects, some Plan Bs be they photography or baking or writing or volunteering to find out more about yourself and where other interests and talents lie. 54. You now have staggering choices: there are never enough excellent people around. 55. "when I encourage someone I see it as an investment in their resilience" steve karagiannis 56 6/KNOWING & DOING 57. There's knowing: 'green vegetables are good for you' 58. And there's doing: regularly eating green vegetables. 59. Read widely, regularly and in particular outside your domain to accumulate knowledge which with doing, tips into wisdom. 60. When making a decision ('I'm going to finally learn how to play the piano'), immediately take an action (search local teachers and book one). 61 Break tough/non-appealing tasks down so that they become time and brain friendly. 62. Give yourself a big enough why? Why do I 'need to be fit?' 63. Articulate that why: write it, draw it, share it with a supporter, view it every day, shout it loud. 64. Without that big enough why, knowing is rarely doing. 65 " success and failure come and go, but don't let them define you. It's who you are that matters" Kamal Ravikant 66. 7/IN A CRAZY, CRAZY WORLD 67. Stop and think. 68. Take time out. 69. Look up at the sky. 70. Spend lots of time outside. In real weather. 71. Walk the beach, the desert, the mountains. 72. Check your breathing: full and replenishing. Not shallow, grabbed, stressed. 73. Check your posture: walk tall, sit tall. Be tall. 74. Find friends who are in the conversation rather than on facebook. 75. Love Planet Earth. Get closer to the real one. 76 "write. don't talk about writing. Don't tell me about wonderful story ideas. Don't give me a bunch of 'somedays'. Plant your ass and scribble, type, keyboard. if you have any talent at all it will leak out despite your failure to pay attention in English" Glen Cook 77. 8/ESCAPING FROM THE CUBICLE 78. I am not my cubicle. 79. My cubicle may limit me physically but it cannot do so mentally. 80. Every day I will work on my cubicle escape plan. 81. My plan requires an idea. I can find one. 82. My plan requires courage. I can build such courage. 83. My plan requires action. I am committed to such. 84. I am not my cubicle. 85. The full story here. 86 "Obstacles are of course a developmental necessity: they teach kids strategy, patience, critical thinking, resilience and resourcefulness"" 87. 9/HUNTER-GATHERER 21st CENTURY 88. We have created a zoo for ourselves. 89. Admittedly a nice zoo. 90. But it's still an alien environment. 91. One which is so often 100% synthetic: sky-less, air-less, ground-less.Full of fuel but not nutrition. 92. And most frighteningly one which makes no demands upon a body which can only be healthy if used and used fully. 93. Become a Hunter-Gatherer 21 Century. Yes, have your HBO. But also have the finest life you seek. 94. RESILIENCE: Think bold. 95. RESILIENCE: Move brave. 96. RESILIENCE: Set direction 97. RESILIENCE: Vital Few>Trivial Many. 98. RESILIENCE: Know & Do 99.RESILIENCE: Back to Basics 100. RESILIENCE: Escape from the Cubicle 101 RESILIENCE: Hunter-Gatherer 21 Century.