Upside-Down Wisdom #12: Resilience

“I couldn’t handle it.”

“I couldn’t handle it.”

We’ve all thought it.
Faced with a big what if, our mind paints a picture—
A crisis. A loss. A moment we hope never comes.

And then it whispers:
“That would break me.”
“I’d fall apart.”
“I couldn’t handle it.”

But here’s the thing:

That’s upside-down.

You’re not forecasting truth.
You’re rehearsing fear.

You are built to handle hard things.
It’s not a personal talent—it’s a human feature.
It’s in your wiring.
It’s in your bones.

You come from a long line of people who faced loss, uncertainty, hardship, and fear—
and lived anyway.
Adapted anyway.
Loved anyway.

Resilience isn’t something you summon.
It’s something that shows up when it’s needed—
in the moment, with the resources that only appear in the moment.

You’re not built to carry imagined futures.
You’re built to meet reality, one moment at a time.

So here’s today’s Upside-Down Wisdom:
You don’t need to be ready for everything.
You’re built to respond to anything.

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This is Upside-Down Wisdom—a series where we flip the script on the conventional "wisdom" we've been taught. If you would like to read other posts in this series, please visit the Upside-Down Wisdom page.