Resilience

A few months ago when the movie was still in the theatres, I saw "All is Lost," starring Robert Redford as a lone aging sailor who's boat is sinking far out at sea.  Throughout the whole movie, we see him struggling, literally attempting to save his life far from any civilization.  I was amazed at his resilience--the ability to bounce back after a set-back.  Over and over again, we'd see him "give up" in exhaustion, literally out of resources and creativity.  Then the next scene would be the next day, and he was at it again, with a fresh idea and a new way to survive whatever dilemma was in front of him at the time.

Today in my mediation time, I kept flashing on his character waking up and attempting something new.  Those meditational snapshots have been on my mind all day. With yet one more snow storm dropping white stuff on Washington, perhaps my snapshots were foretelling the attitude I may need to make it through winter, but I suspect something more than that.  While it feels like I cannot survive one more snow storm, I am sure there is nothing life-threatening at stake for me this evening.

As I reflect on the sailor's resourcefulness, it was only when certain more obvious avenues to survival had proven unsuccessful that he was forced to become more creative.  Right up to the end of the movie, which I won't share lest I ruin the movie for any who haven't yet seen it, when he did something that almost seemed to assure his demise did he actually assure survival.

I think about my many efforts to get Choice Point published over the 17 years since it was "finished." I just gave up about 12 years ago, but I am wondering if I should literally dust off the now out-of-date book and bring more creativity to marketing.  Similarly, The Game Called Life, which I self-published because I didn't want to repeat my experience with Choice Point, has really never gotten off the ground, largely because avenues with which I was familiar for marketing a book with a publisher are closed to self-published works. 

My business, which failed in the dot.com bust, is another challenge wherein I felt at my wit's end in marketing before I finally gave it up completely six years later.  The economics of doing any of these things is more than a little terrifying to me after having my own economic "All is Lost" several years ago.

But the bottom line is that all wasn't lost.  Like the sailor in the sinking boat, I got creative.  I had to move, and I had to shift my expectations about how my work life would play out.  I did it though.  I have a regular income, a benefits package, and even some retirement savings I've been able to squirrel away.  I even bought a home again 15 months ago. While I may not be very happy in my current work, I actually do have choices.  All was far from lost. 

I think something in me is saying I should revisit some of these challenges, think like my life depended on succeeding, and discover how resourceful I could actually be.  That is what resilience is about, stepping back and taking one more run at it when all appears to be lost.  Like the sailor, I may actually need to put my life on the line to save my life.  If I don't try, how will I ever know?  I am reminded of a question I've asked in my books and many coaching sessions: "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" If I could not fail, why wouldn't I put everything on the line?  Now that is the question.