No one plans to be shipwrecked. But once it happens, you’re stuck.
Shipwrecks (like a quarantine) are traumatic. They are unexpected. But while you’re stuck, you still have to survive. You need to eat. Sleep. Stay sheltered. All the things you did before, just in a very different way.
Of course, you hope to get home. You devise plans on how to get the attention of passing boats for a chance at rescue.
While you’re there, each day is different. Some days you sit on the beach and stare out into the abyss, dreaming of your old life. Plotting what you’ll do when you are rescued — what you’ll eat, who you’ll visit first. You get nothing done, and you feel sad and lonely.
Other days you’re energetic. You build a new pully system for your shelter. You find a new way to catch fish. You feel hopeful and empowered.
If you’re shipwrecked, you may be tempted to sit at the water’s edge and place seashells in an endless line to count your days of isolation. But eventually, you need to figure out life. You gather yourself up, and you figure out a new way to do things. For now.
You’re not required to be happy about it. It’s not necessary to become a master carpenter or fisherman. But it is necessary to develop fortitude. To understand this is the situation in which you find yourself, and as long as you’re alive and able, you can figure out new ways to do things.
To survive in disasters and thrive in life, one quality stands out: Grit. This combination (by our definition) of flexibility, creativity, determination shows up all over the place. In books about surviving disasters, to books about raising genius kids — it’s not the hard skills you have. It’s a mental state. A mindset. The ability to take whatever curveball life throws at you and run with it. Or at least not be struck out by it.
Shipwrecks suck. Sheltering at home stinks. Showing up to work at the grocery story or hospital is scary. But through any trauma, you settle into a new normal. It’s not a jail sentence with an end date. It’s a new way to live, until gradually things get back to normal — but of course, normal won’t ever be the same.
