What Is Functional Resilience?
The hyper-individualised, ‘lone-wolf’ attitude might look cool in the movies but doesn’t bear much use in the real world. Too often, resilience framed as simply the ability to endure hardship, to push through adversity, and to tough it out as an individual.
But true resilience isn’t just about grit — it’s about thriving in an unpredictable world. It’s about adapting, being prepared, and having the skills, strength, and support systems (material and human) needed to face life’s inevitable challenges with confidence.
You’d have to be living under a rock to not realise that we live in a time of increasing instability — climate change, economic shifts, political unrest, pandemics, and supply chain disruptions all make it clear that, deliberately or not, fragility is built into the systems we rely on. In fact, I recommend checking out George Monbiot’s recent opinion piece on this topic.
Functional Resilience is an approach that ensures you’re not just at the mercy of external forces but instead building your capacity to adapt, overcome, and support others in the process.
Rather than relying on empty self-help platitudes or building a nuclear bunker for extreme doomsday scenarios, Functional Resilience is about practical preparedness, adaptability, and sustainability. It covers three key areas: Physical Resilience, Material Resilience, and Social Resilience. Each plays a vital role in ensuring that you are not just surviving but also creating a more autonomous, connected, and self-sufficient way of living.
The Three Pillars of Functional Resilience
💪 Physical Resilience: Your Body as Your First Tool
Strength, endurance, and mobility are foundational to being adaptable and capable in a crisis.
Being able to physically handle demanding tasks (carrying loads, climbing, lifting, walking long distances) matters more than gym aesthetics (I still have to remind myself of this regularly)
Recovery is key — it’s not just about pushing hard but also about maintaining long-term health and preventing injury.
Practical applications:
Being strong enough to help others in emergencies.
Having the endurance to handle unexpected challenges (walking home during a transport failure, carrying heavy supplies or people, etc.).
Developing mobility and flexibility to avoid injury in unpredictable conditions.
🔧 Material Resilience: Your Environment, Skills & Preparedness
The world around us is designed for convenience, not self-sufficiency. That makes us vulnerable.
Material resilience means having practical skills and resources so you’re less reliant on fragile external systems.
It’s not about hoarding — it’s about being prepared and self-reliant in realistic ways.
Practical applications:
Having basic supplies for power cuts, supply chain issues, or financial hardship.
Learning basic repair and maintenance skills (vehicle, home, tools).
Growing and/or preserving food to supplement external supply chains.
Using low-tech, reliable solutions to reduce dependence on failing infrastructure.
🫂 Social Resilience: Your Community & Support Networks
No one thrives alone — our individual resilience is deeply tied to our relationships and communities. The resilience of a community is greater than the sum of each member’s individual resilience, as there is a multiplier effect of support.
The rise of hyper-individualism has led to weaker social safety nets and fewer real connections between people.
Strong communities create mutual aid networks that help people weather hardships together rather than facing them alone.
Practical applications:
Building trust-based relationships with friends, neighbours, and local groups.
Creating skill-sharing and mutual support initiatives (gardening, first aid, tool-sharing, etc.).
Getting involved in cooperative economics (community-supported agriculture, co-ops, skill trades, etc.).
Encouraging knowledge exchange so resilience knowledge is shared, not siloed.
The Crossover Between These Areas
Resilience isn’t compartmentalised, of course — these three areas intersect and reinforce each other:
Physical strength improves mental resilience, which makes it easier to maintain material preparedness.
Material preparedness reduces anxiety, allowing you to focus on skill-building and social connections.
Strong social networks provide resources, reducing the burden of needing to be personally prepared for everything.
The goal isn’t to become a lone survivalist (the ‘lone wolf’ doesn’t exist… at least not for long) — it’s to be capable and connected.
Example: Imagine your area is hit by flooding. If you’re physically capable, you can move supplies and help neighbours. If you have material resilience, you have food, water, and a backup power source. If you have social resilience, you’re plugged into a local network that shares resources and support. All three work together.
How to Start Thinking More Resiliently
You don’t need to overhaul your entire life overnight. Functional Resilience is about small, incremental improvements that build over time.
✔️ Audit Your Current Resilience Levels – Where are your weak points? Where are you already strong?
✔️ Start Small – Pick one action from each area (e.g., learn a new physical skill, stock up on some key food supplies, reconnect with an old friend).
✔️ Build Routines – Make resilience a habit, not just an emergency measure.
✔️ Engage With Others – Whether online or in person, learning from and teaching others strengthens everyone.
✔️ Question Fragility – Look at the systems you rely on and ask, ‘What happens if this stops working?’
🔒 For Paid Subscribers: Functional Resilience Assessment & Action Plan
For those supporting this work, I’m sharing:
✔️ A Functional Resilience Scorecard – A simple framework to assess where you're strong and where you need to improve.
And if you’re interested in amplifying your resilience with some one-to-one coaching, drop me an email.