Essay: A mindset for resilience
In a climate where it seems like we are lurching from one disaster to another, we should be looking at ways to bring resilience to our communities. It is our ability to accept and apply feedback that is perhaps the most integral permaculture principle of all.
There are countless examples of designs, relationships, and other endeavours that have failed due to a closed mindset. By this, I mean an inability to recognise a mistake, failure to see potential for improvement, or refusal to swallow the fact that accepting another opinion will make our own idea better. The last one can be particularly hard, because it means that we no longer thought of it all by ourselves. When it comes down to it, all of these - inability, failure and refusal - are limits imposed by your own thoughts, and can be overcome.
Resilience is ingrained in the ethics and principles of permaculture, a movement really about two things; stewarding our planet regeneratively (Earth Care) and building resilient cultures (People Care and Fair Share). Each of these requires a mindset focused on potential. I use this word carefully, in preference, to other words I will get into, such as growth, problem-solving, or solutions, which are frequently used within the permaculture, and wider, lexicon, because they are words that contribute to, and are symptomatic of, the situation of global unease we find ourselves in. Instead, I think potential gives us the space we need.
The commercialisation and industrialisation of society, in a system of globalised capitalism, is framing our unconscious bias in praise of innovation and improvement. We have a tendency to see things in a in a fundamentally linear progression, and we apply this to ourselves also.
Unchecked growth can be downright dangerous, and describing a situation or context as a problem, is to begin from a place of deficit. The endless pursuit of solutions to problems that range from trivial to existential, sometimes simultaneously based on your point of view, has also contributed to where we find ourselves today and the endless application of inappropriate technology interventions when we can be perfectly happy, and it seems quite clear that we were, without them.
In practical terms, we need to retain from seeking to ‘fix’ things about our property, and instead see that supposed weakness or problem as a group of elements that hold potential. That boggy spot is actually a powerful combination of gradient, water movement across the landscape, soil profile, perhaps shade, vegetation, habitat, and more. Observations that one would not Inuit as problems on their own, so it is the anthropocentric lens we are looking through, not the reality, that we see as problematic.
Permaculture is really a movement about two things. Stewarding our planet regeneratively (Earth Care) and building resilient cultures (People Care and Fair Share).
The lens we view the world thorough is shaped by many factors, many outside of our own control. We can of course take off the glasses. Many industries, particularly the education sector, now frequently reference a growth mindset. Coined by researcher Carol Dweck, the term is about looking forward, learning from mistakes and accepting failures on the path to achieving a goal. It is your mindset that is often the only difference between a situation that you consider having been successful over one that, left as it was, remained a failure. Had you kept refining the ideas behind the failure, eventually you may have been successful.
Applying this in your life will be challenging at first, and it is easy to be pessimistic or even downright negative about our own skills and abilities. Consider though, that ongoing research into neuroplasticity and psychology indicates that you have the potential to learn almost anything, so what is there to lose in starting your own inner dialogue and talking yourself into success? We all make mistakes and fail at things, but it's the people who don’t give up that are the stewards of gardens and farms that you likely have gazed at enviously wondering how did they do that? and why doesn’t mine look like that?
If you’ve been focusing on the “gardening” aspects of permaculture, and want to take your game to a higher level, it’s time to step back and look at yourself. Do you have a decision making process? Formal or informal is fine. A scaffold of questions that you ask yourself before implementing a project in the garden might include asking what the needs of the new element are. What procedures, when designing, allow you to gather feedback and develop new iterations? This comes through your powers of observation. Have you simply given yourself time to think about thinking?
Being able to recognise when something is futile, is different to just giving up, and will be of great value to you in the long run.
You might feel that you’ve already got the above in place, so next up is fine-tuning. Once you’ve started a project or design, it is vital that you continue to self-reflect and apply feedback throughout the implementation process. Knowing when to stop and when to redirect time and energy is an important skill. We’ve all been there when unseasonable weather has arrived unannounced, and we were stuck with the decision on whether to proceed, or change our plans to suit the unexpected event. Despite the overwhelming positivity of a growth mindset, it is also a mindset of absolute realism. Being able to recognise when something is futile is different to just giving up, and will be of great value to you in the long run.
Finally, not letting positive feedback trap you is also important. It’s nice to hear positive feedback on a project, drawing, or idea. It feels rewarding to be recognised for the time and effort you’ve put in. Remember though, not to be blinded by that feedback, or you might just miss a refinement that brings you closer to a more regenerative and resilient design. Your pot plant collection, garden or farm will evolve and so should your design and thinking.
So, a growth mindset is an important tool to have and use effectively. Accepting and applying feedback is ultimately how patterns in nature evolve, and therefore is a significant principle to grasp. Enjoy your mistakes and know that each failure is a step towards success - if you look for how to improve.
Paterson
April, 2022
