You’re More Resourceful Than You Think

Contingency And Crisis Planning Part III

In this comment, reader Mauro writes the following:

While I’m always happy to get the comments on the blog, and I’m happy to hear Mauro is thinking about the contingency bits, this comment made me deeply pause and consider what we’re doing on this site. So I’m going to take a little detour today and look at some of the things we’ve got going on in this little comment and see what we can do about it.

You see, we’ve got the good news and the bad news.

Bad News: I’m Failing At The Job Description I Made Up For Myself

We’ll see Mauro is thinking on his feet; what can he do if the world goes to hell in a handbasket? Pick up litter to sell on the street?

I’m not teaching you all the secrets of Pirate Sorcery and Black Hat Life Hacking so you all can be homeless vagrants pinching a living in the future; apocalypse or not. I’ve written before; we’re currently living in a Choose Your Own Adventure stage of history. For better or worse. There are many options and that can get overwhelming, but we have the ability to choose our futures.

Even if the end of the world comes, there’s all out war, and so on.

However, right now we have the opportunity to avoid the worst of it and make preparations so that we don’t end up like Mauro’s future-ghost; a former lawyer turned rag-and-bone man.

Oh boy. I need to start providing the goods so we can get you guys independently wealthy and set up with a bunch of hobbies that’ll make your lives a lot better.

That’s the bad news.

Now For Some Good News:

There’s a tendency in crisis planning to assume that because there’s a worst case scenario and you’ve got a plan in the back of your mind for it, that that’s what you’re aiming towards.

That’s rarely the case.

For almost all global level conflicts, the easy option is to move away from the danger. Or, in many cases, not to put yourself into danger.

Most people never have to deal with worst-case scenario planning because ultimately, changes occur on a slow-boil and/or we’re simply not interesting nor do we live long enough to have to deal with disasters and their consequences.

But…

The good news is that human beings, you dear reader included, are almost always better armed, prepared and equipped to deal with difficult circumstances. It’s a feature of being part of the several billion years’ old line of evolutionary success.

Chances are, even when faced with the stereotypical zombie apocalypse, you have a set of skills and life experiences to draw on as and when you need; and it’s more than you think. A lot of prepping and contingency planning is simply in recognising the assets you have available to you and knowing how the skills you already have can be applied to the situation you find yourself in.

We see that in Mauro’s question; are lawyers useful in a World War III scenario?

As much as people might give lawyers a hard time about their chosen vocation and the nature of it, I’m not going to do that, (empathy and understanding of others is a big skill to develop, after all, as is finding someone’s strengths and weaknesses.)

Lawyers tend to be driven, have powerful attention-to-detail, well-educated, good at reasoning with people, good at understanding people, combatting people, research, logical and, despite their sometimes cold-blooded reputation, empathic.

These skills, not so much immediately useful in the way a sharpshooter is in a warzone, nor as oviously crucial as a field-medic, but it’s not something to sneeze at and all of those things can be pulled out of the bag in many situations.

And hey, maybe you get some qualifications in International Humanitarian Law and your World War Three experience is spent sat in a negotiating room saving children from someone else’s bombs. Contingency Planning.

You’re More Resourceful Than You Think

You have more resources at your disposal at any given moment than you’re aware of. You have enough skills that you’re unaware of that your life is a set of potential sequences that can take you anywhere; for better or worse.

We’ve got to work out which thread we’re going to pull on. Seeing as mentality is incredibly important and choosing your adventure is on the menu, let’s work on pulling the right strings and bringing better futures into our reach.

This is as much a memo to myself as it is a blog post for anyone else to read.

And it’s a reminder to get to work so I can weave some threads for you all.

Thanks Mauro for prompting it!

I’ll see you in the next one.