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My resourcefulness and creativeness allow me to find solutions and strategies to achieving my goals.
I believe this is why I like the term Renaissance Man. Knowing about a lot of things means I have a large capacity to be resourceful, so long as I can apply my knowledge.
I respect the right tools, but I also believe the right tool is so often my brain. My resourcefulness (and so much else) depends on a necessary trust of my brain. This is only possible through learning and the applications of that learning resulting in outcomes that I learn from once again. A delightful feedback mechanism, built right into the learning! Learn, apply, learn, apply, learn…
In order to utilize my resourcefulness, I need to be confident. Confidence is related to my ego. We are all resourceful in our own right in our own work space, in our own comfort zone.
Everything is related. I like to apply my mix and match my learning to various subjects through experimentation. This is the fruit of my knowledge. Putting in the effort to experiment helps me understand a little bit more each time. So does asking questions.
I’m not afraid to experiment. Verbal or physical. I’ve been proven wrong before.
For example, working as a technologist fixing things, I’ve had little plastic things break on me plenty. We all have. I’ve tried to fix these things with all sorts of glue. Doing this has taught me that lots of glues will just melt plastic. It’s also taught me that sometimes it’s just silly to try and fix cheap things.
I still like to avoid waste and my effort here will always be relentless. This runs deep.
Resourcefulness also effects the amount of waste I make in the world. This is why I like simple tools that have the capacity to be used for multiple things.
When I go on the road, I usually have a non-breakable cup with me. I like this because it’s a cup I can drink from, but I can also put some trail mix, nuts and bolts, or crackers in it. I can avoid having to use paper cups and getting my hands all salty. This is resourceful. This helps me reduce my waste and eliminate some of my suffering.
I make my own almond milk. I soak, then grind, then strain the almond bits from the now milk to make almond milk with a byproduct of little finely chopped almond grinds. My resourcefulness tells me to use the almond grinds in my oatmeal in the morning, and to make peanut butter almond grind bliss balls.
Anybody who has spent time living with very little has undoubtedly been forced to become resourceful. I believe society tells me I should be ashamed of my resourcefulness, and that I need to buy a new something instead of using my old thing for multiple usages. I find this clever, some people find this cheap. I know I get this from both my mother and father.
Simplicity is the key to my resourcefulness, and I think that this frustrates people because it provides a seemingly obvious solution and doesn’t satisfy that learned desire to acquire more things. When we’re confronted with an easy and obvious solution it’s a let down man. Consumption is like a drug.
A few years ago I was hard set on getting some snowshoes for exploring. I decided not to get them, but I also decided at the same time to explore as I wished. I put it into my mind that I’d still walk through the un-trampled snow and wouldn’t be stopped just because I didn’t have these magical snow shoes. I found out that most of the trails I had envisioned would be impossible to walk through were actually hard packed by people that had come before me, sometimes even with snowshoes! I learned that walking through the snow in the middle of the forest is usually fairly easy because the trees block most of the snow from falling down. I also learned that my feet only get a bit cold, and once I take off my wet socks at home, I do survive.
I frequently envision a Mad Max world where resourcefulness is essential to life itself. A world where we no longer have giant factories making us disposable forks and knives and a needle and thread goes a long way.
I don’t think this is a nihilistic view of the world, I think it’s very practical and even romantic.
Perhaps there’s also a bit of the Shire in my Mad Max world too.