“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” – Maya Angelou
As a continuation of the previous blog on developing anti-fragility* or as I like to call it “Transformation Capability”, which is the ability to take any shocks that life throws at you and be able to turn that into a positive and keep growing better from it.
We learned that we don’t necessarily need to wait for a Tsunami to wake us up and wash us down, we can learn to develop this capability by deliberately putting ourselves in smaller challenging situations to check for vulnerability and breaking points, and then look to shore and strengthen that area, and in the process transform ourselves to become better.
Another opportunity to apply anti-fragility or transformation capability thinking a little deep in our lives is to approach every area of our life through the lens of Internal and External Strengths, Vulnerabilities, Opportunities, and Threats.
If we did this to our finances, our relationships, our work, our health, our mental states, our emotions, our sleep, and our recreation, etc. we would be able to look at a few of our vulnerabilities and shore and strengthen that wall.
E.g. If we look at our health, we may find that we have age on our side, we are relatively healthy, and our immune systems are strong. However, we may find that we tend to eat a lot of fast food every day. Now, if we looked at this eating habit over a long-time horizon, while it may not be apparent today, we know intuitively that if we continued down this path for a long time, we will be facing major problems in our later life. A good way to then use this information to develop anti-fragility would be to develop small habits today to eat healthier, thereby removing this vulnerability, and turning it into a strength. The process of doing this leaves us transformed, and not to mention leave a little extra change in our bank accounts with less fast food.
Similarly, if we approached our finances with this approach, we may find that out strengths are that today, we have a good job. However, we may find that it may be our only source of income. That dependence on a single source leaves us vulnerable to the company, the job market, and the economic conditions. If the company for whatever reason lays you off, this may turn catastrophic in a day, and it may spiral to affect other areas like paying the mortgage, the car, etc. A good way to shore and strengthen this would be to perhaps look at ways to add a second source of regular income via investments or a part-time job or save a little more each month so that you can bump up your emergency savings to 1 year instead of six months. This leaves you less vulnerable to external unexpected shocks to the system.
This approach can help people to leave them less vulnerable to external and internal shocks to the system in the long run. So, let’s pull out those pens and papers and start doing our analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Here’s to all of you,
Shine On, and wishing you the best to inspire and help others shine brighter as well! Remember, Shine starts with small, and if sustained daily, becomes significant over time.
From Shine Vision Life.
Our daily mission is to help you on your own Shine Life Journey to be inspired, learn, grow, get better and shine a little brighter, not just in our own lives, but in our families and the world around us, in small, simple, and easy ways.
References:
Photo by Umberto on Unsplash
*Chicago. Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. 2013. Antifragile. Harlow, England: Penguin Books.
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