(from Carl Richards blog posted 5/14/2020. Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner® currently located in London. His two books are “The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money” & “The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money.” Hundreds of his sketches about investing, money and behavior are archived on the “Your Money” page of the New York Times. Follow Carl on Twitter @behaviorgap.)
Resilience is not a response to a crisis, it’s a prerequisite to surviving one.
Specific resilience would be great if you knew the specific crisis beforehand. But since we never do, general resilience becomes gold.
General resilience is not about responding to a specific event, but rather being prepared for whatever comes our way.
For example:
- Financial: an emergency fund of cash to hedge against economic collapses.
- Physical: nutrition, functional movement, and sleep to strengthen the immune system in case of disease.
- Emotional: meditation practice, therapy, daily check-ins to stave off mental breakdowns.
Think of general resilience as an extension of Benjamin Graham’s idea of “margin of safety.” A buffer. Air in the shocks.
What I love about this is how empowering it is. No longer are we the victims of an unpredictable world. Now we are the architects of a more resilient future.
Ready for anything. Able to take on any crisis that comes.
Doesn’t that sound nice?