Resilience


The Nomad Show #1- Resilience

Welcome to the Nomad Show!

This is a podcast for you, if you find yourself in a new place, whether geographically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually or otherwise. 

This is a show about philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and motivation. 

Together, we will ponder human nature from the perspective of the nomad, the sojourner, the immigrant, the traveler, the wanderer. 

I will introduce concepts that have spurred much introspection and growth in me, and together we will explore topics like resilience, impostor syndrome, ego, empathy, self improvement and so on. 

The idea for this show came from a place of deep introspection and soul searching in me. After a grave personal disappointment, I was given the task of digging deep to understand my motivations, weaknesses, strengths, hubris, and psychological blindspots. I learned a lot by doing a deep dive, reading over 50 books in 3 months, learning so much about the world, human tendencies, and why we do what we do, and how to do it better. 

As an immigrant, I have identified so much with the nomadic lifestyle and perspective. 

Who is a nomad?
According to the oxford dictionary, a nomad is a member of a community that moves with its animals from place to place. 

I have taken the liberty to explore the word “nomad” to mean equianimity, emotional balance, mental calmness and composure. 

Maintaining a stable internal state when your external geographical state changes seems great doesnt it?

Nomadic tribe historically move from place to place, adapting and assimilating to new geographical locations and cultures, improving themselves along the way as a mode of survival and longevity

Although there are no perfect examples to illustrate any point, a very fascinating nomadic tribe in history is the Maasai tribe. Since the 15th century, the maasai tribe of warriors have migrated from kenya to tanzania, accumulating assets like cattle, maintaining their family structure, and their genetic fitness. Although the maasai face many problems and economic pressures in this current era of globalization, they have demonstrated a great deal of resilience and have found a way to be true to their beliefs and customs.  

Resilience:
This is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, or the ability of a substance to spring back into shape after an external stressor. 
Imagine being knocked down by life and having the ability to come back as strong as before. 
It is falling down 7 times and getting back up eight times. It means having the perspective to see success as a possibility despite experiencing failure. 

Nassim Taleb, in his book antifragile, introduced the concept of antifragility- which he described as a property of systems to increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, or failures. 
This is fundamentally different from resilience- 
the resilient resists the shock and stays the same, the antifragile gets better. The resilient recovers, the antifragile revamps, revitalizes and reinvigorates to a level higher than before the insult

A greek philosopher once asked, “how can you think yourself as a great man, when the first accident that comes along can wipe you out completely?”

Life gets messy, life gets hard. The mess sometimes comes at you fast

Is it possible to gain from the mess? is it possible to improve with the difficulties that life throws at you. 

Nobody wants to fail, but failure can be valuable. if you play the long game. 

What doesn’t kill you doesn’t always make you stronger. It could make you weaker, more fragile, or leave you the same. 
To be stronger, one has to see the insult as a lesson, the correction as preparation, the vacuum as an opportunity, and the emptiness as room for growth.

James 1:2-4
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.


Thank you, this has been episode 1 of the nomad show

For show notes, visit thenomadshow.com, follow us on twitter @nomadshowtweets

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