What is resourceful living?
Well, let’s look at the dictionary definitions of “resourceful.”
Here are a few I’ve found:
- able to deal skilfully and promptly with new situations, difficulties, etc.
- skilled at solving problems and making decisions independently.
- having the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.
- able to act effectively or imaginatively, especially in difficult situations.
Synonyms for “resourceful” include: inventive, enterprising, ingenious, creative, capable, clueful (as opposed to “clueless”), able, adroit, talented, clever
Clearly, at the opposite end of the spectrum from resourceful living lie dependence and cluelessness.
Who wants that?
So . . . how to live resourcefully?
Knowledge is the key. As challenges crop up, the resourceful among us have either learned to deal with them – or know where to look for answers.
But to live resourcefully also requires that when challenges that stump us come along, we know how to ask the right questions.
Sometimes, we have to stand a problem on its head to see it from the proper – and solvable – perspective.
And, finally, to live resourcefully means we cultivate an elastic sense of perspective. This is best summed up in one of my favorite quotations, this one by Ambassador M. I. Abramowitz:
“Just because the solutions of problems are not visible at any particular time does not mean that those problems will never be alleviated – or confined to tolerable dimensions. History has a way of changing the very terms in which problems operate and of leaving them, in the end, unsolved, to be sure, yet strangely deflated of their original meaning and importance.”
