Social capital involves our private and public relationships. These are the relationships that nourish and guide us, the less intimate relationships we have with people with whom we exchange favors, and the connections that we can draw upon to meet our needs and offer our goods and services.
Living capital is the land, the trees, the water, the soil, and the animals around us. It’s our bodies as well – our health, fitness level, and physical abilities.
Material capital refers to tangible possessions such as homes, bridges, building materials, tools, stored food, computers, solar arrays, and cars.
Knowledge capital includes the things that we know and our expertise in applying that knowledge.
Emotional and spiritual capital is measured by our personal capacity to roll with the punches, to weather inner storms and outer dramas while remaining calm and centered.
Cultural capital is defined by the stories, songs, and habits of the local population we live among. Some communities react well to adversity and some do not. The difference is a measure of the cultural capital of each.
And finally we have time as a form of capital, which refers to the precious, ever-depleting commodity that we need to allocate wisely if we wish to inhabit a future filled with prosperity and abundance.
We like how this framework places equal emphasis on each of its eight components. It steers us away from the widely held and untrue belief that if you simply have a lot of money, or a well-stocked retreat property in the boondocks, you can handle anything that life may throw at you. To be truly resilient—to be prosperous—you need depth in all eight forms of capital.
So becoming more resilient may involve installing solar panels on your house, or spending time at an intensive spiritual retreat. Or it may involve an in-depth recalculation of your financial position or a new nutrition and exercise regime. For some it will mean acquiring new knowledge and skills, and others new tools to increase their emotional range and literacy, or perhaps a little bit of all of these. It all depends on your personal circumstances and goals.
To help you meet your goals, we’re going to employ the 8 Forms framework throughout the rest of the book. We’ll show how you can take a form of capital that you happen to have in relative abundance and exchange it for a form of capital that you lack. What might this look like? Perhaps using your professional expertise to create a second income stream, or trading money for compost. Again, your personal situation will define the specifics of the course you take.
To help you chart that course, we have dedicated a full chapter to each of the eight forms, filled with insights and best practices we’ve collected on how to build capital in each. All you need to do is follow the steps.
INSUFFICIENT BUT NECESSARY
When it comes to these steps, many of the individual ones you take will likely feel insufficient in and of themselves, yet it’s important to understand that they are necessary in aggregate.
For instance, swapping out the incandescent bulbs in your house for LED lights is completely insufficient to shift the larger trend of global warming. But, if all households do this, across many nations, a material impact will be made and therefore it’s necessary.
Likewise, storing extra food may be totally insufficient to feed your family for more than a few days or weeks. But it’s necessary that you do it anyways, because it might make all the difference in the wake of a natural disaster.
We’re going to recommend dozens of things, each of which may strike you as insufficient by themselves. Together, however, they’re completely necessary for prosperity, peace of mind, aligning your thoughts and actions effectively, and providing motivation to those who may look to you for guidance and leadership.
A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
We heartily recommend that you begin preparing as early as possible. The crises headed our way will be with us for a very long time, which means that becoming resilient is not a “one and done” objective.
The need to remain resilient will likely increase as the Three E trends arrive in force over next few decades, and the type of resilience required of us will likely shift as developments unfold.
In short: think of developing resilience as a journey rather than a destination.
In whichever areas of your life you choose to focus your efforts, ask yourself three basic questions:
1. What should I keep doing? Most of the things you already have in your life you are going to keep. Most of the things you already do, you are going to keep doing. Eating well, getting plenty of sleep, laughing and loving your family are all examples of things you are going to keep doing. It’s important to emphasize this because some people look at the changes coming and think we’re talking about having to drop everything and start a brand new, and less enjoyable life. In truth, 80% to 90% of the things that are already in your life will remain there.
2. What should I stop doing? Some things no longer make sense given the macro trends in play, and you should stop doing them right away because they no longer serve you or are increasing your expenditures and risks. Unearth the things you’re doing that you should stop. Stop eating foods that don’t nourish you. Stop wasting money, energy and other resources – especially time.
3. What new things should I start doing? Here’s where the magic begins. What are all the new things you need to do to align your actions with the new reality of the world around you? Depending on your circumstances and aspirations, you may start exercising more, or begin new practices of daily awareness and connection. Perhaps it’s time to get to know your neighbors better, or learn how to garden. We’ll help you figure out which ones to focus on first.
But keep in mind that your pursuit of all of these will be fluid. Some you’ll handle quickly; others may take years to get right. Just remember it’s a journey, and enjoy the progress you make while on it.
MIND THE GAP!
Taking these steps is also very important for emotional reasons.
If you ride the British tube, or subway, you’ll have heard the pleasant recording of a woman’s voice and/or noticed the signs telling you to ‘mind the gap.’ In this case the gap being referred to is a dangerous empty spot between the train and the platform.
Another anxiety-producing gap exists between what people value and what they do. The two are often not always aligned in our modern culture. In that gap between one’s thoughts and one’s actions is where anxiety and fear live and breed. Sometimes in debilitating, paralyzing amounts.
If you know that an earthquake is a distinct possibility where you live, and yet have done nothing to prepare, then you have a gap. Even if you don’t spend much time consciously dwelling on it, an uneasy situation has merely been suppressed and sits there, quietly gnawing at the edges of your consciousness, corroding your overall sense of well-being.
Add up enough of these gaps and you’ll end up more anxious and unsettled than you need to be. In our work, we often encounter people who are anxious or depressed without understanding why. Fortunately, in most cases the anxiety and stress can be relieved by simply closing the gap with a few simple actions—in our previous example, it might be as simple as putting together an earthquake response kit. Unfortunately, a lot of people won’t undertake even the simplest of steps.
Another example is that our just-in-time food delivery system could suffer a breakdown for any one of a dozen legitimate reasons. As mentioned, most cities and communities have only 3-4 days of food in the stores. A lot of people comfort themselves with the knowledge that the stores have never run dry before. Therefore a prolonged period without access to groceries seems far too remote a possibility to concern themselves with.
However we know that the fear of shortage lurks because every time there’s an approaching hurricane or big snow storm, people