This is a resource page for my book Resilience, including bonus material and links to useful resources, organised by the book chapters.
Articles linked to are by me unless otherwise stated.
I’ll update the page with new material from time to time, so you may want to bookmark it for reference.
Mark McGuinness
Chapter 1: The guardians at the gate
Nio Wikipedia entry – Pictures and background on the temple guardians.
Buddhism Is Not What You Think by Steve Hagen
The Power of Myth – Watch video clips from the classic interview series with Joseph Campbell.
Chapter 2: The bigger the dream, the bigger the fear
Wingsuit Base Jumping Video – Told you it was terrifying.
For insights into the ‘endurance mindset’ of leaders and endurance athletes, visit Jarie Bolander’s site Endurance Leader.
For more on Kaihougyou, read The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei by John Stevens (Shambhala, 1988).
For an inspiring story of courage in the karate dojo, read Waking Dragons (Summersdale Publishers, 2006), Goran Powell’s account of completing the thirty man kumite, fighting thirty opponents one after the other.
For more on how to handle fear and other troublesome emotions, see John Eaton’s blog: Reverse Thinking.
Chapter 3: Why do rejection and
criticism hurt so much?
David Rock, Your Brain at Work, Scene 10 “Turning enemies into friends” (HarperCollins, 2009)
Low Social Rank Messes with Monkeys’ Immune Systems by Altering Gene Expression by Sarah Zhang
Chapter 5: Why you need to build resilience
30 famous authors whose works were rejected repeatedly — and sometimes rudely — by publishers by Michelle Kerns
Chapter 6: A simple but powerful
way to develop resilience
Walking mindfulness
If you’re really struggling with sitting mindfulness, or if you’d just like a bit more activity or variety, try walking mindfulness. It basically involves walking up and down between two fixed points, while paying attention to your present experience.
1. As with sitting mindfulness, decide when, where and for how long you are going to practice.
2. Decide on two fixed points to walk between. If you’re indoors, try to make it at least ten yards. If you have a garden (and like me, you aren’t bothered what the neighbors think), you can make your walk longer, ideally about fifteen to twenty yards.
3. Stand still on one of your fixed points, facing the other. Close your eyes and ‘scan’ your body with your attention, starting with the feet and moving up to the crown of your head, noticing all the physical sensations you are experiencing right now. Remember, you are not trying to relax! If you notice your body feels tense, that’s fine, just pay attention to the sensation without trying to change it.
4. Now extend your awareness to include all the sounds you can hear around you, near and far. Try to hold both your bodily sensations and the sounds in your awareness at the same time. Finally, open your eyes and notice all the colors and shapes around you — as well as the sensations and sounds.
5. Start walking — very slowly — and notice the sensations, sounds, and sights you experience as you walk. Pay particular attention to the feel of the ground under your feet and the muscles in your legs.
6. When you reach the second point, stop, pause, turn around and walk back again. Each time your mind wanders (as it will) bring your attention back to the experience of simply walking.
More on mindfulness and meditation
For an excellent introduction to mindfulness meditation, see Steve Hagen’s Meditation: Now or Never (Penguin, 2012).
For an overview of the types and benefits of Attentional Training (AT) as well as how to use it to deal with fear and uncertainty in the pursuit of big dreams, see Chapter 7 of Jonathan Fields’ book Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance (Portfolio/Penguin 2011).
What Daily Meditation Can Do for Your Creativity
How Getting Nothing Done Can Make You More Productive
Chapter 10: Roll with the punches
Thank you to Sensei Tony Ecclestone of Meridian Aikido Club for introducing me to aikido.
John Eaton’s blog about the brain, the mind, and personal change: Reverse Thinking
Chapter 15: Is the prize worth the price?
For inspiration and advice on handling the uncertainty that goes hand in hand with pursuing creative and risky projects, see Jonathan Fields’ book Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance (Portfolio/Penguin, 2011).
Chapter 17: Find your tribe
Seth Godin, Tribes: We need you to lead us (Piatkus, 2008)
Chapter 18: How to fix it next time
Chris Arnold now runs Creative Orchestra (and has three guitars and two pianos in the office).
Chapter 20: Narrow the odds
Number of Internet users worldwide reaches two billion: UN, The Independent, 26 January 2011
Chapter 22: Make rejection irrelevant
Some tools to help you build an opportunity magnet online:
Blogging, website building and online publishing: WordPress
How WordPress Helps You Take Creative Control of Your Website by Simon Oliver
Managing a mailing list: I use Aweber; another good service (free up to 2,000 subscribers) is Mailchimp.
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin. If you like this article, read his classic book on using email (and other forms of permission marketing) ethically and effectively.
Online communities: The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People
Chapter 23: Dare to be a tall poppy
Titus Livius, History of Rome, Book 1
Chapter 27: Get some perspective
Leonardo da Vinci, Of judging your own pictures, Notebooks, section 530, Project Gutenberg translation
Chapter 29: Who do they think they are?
For Sonia Simone’s take on the ‘peanut gallery’ see: Are You Talking to the Right People?
Chapter 34: Criteria (part two) – How good are you?
Seamus Heaney, “Yeats as an Example?” in Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978 (Faber and Faber, 1980)
Chapter 35: Your heart, your ego and your reputation
Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, (Arkana / Penguin, 1991)
Chapter 39: How much do you want it?
James Fenton, “A Lesson from Michelangelo,” The Strength of Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Chapter 43: “You’re lucky”
Strategy, Tactics and the Plan for the Next 97 Days by Chris Guillebeau
Chapter 47: The fascination of what’s difficult
Sensei Clive MacDonald teaches aikido at Braintree Aiki Budo Kai.