Transcript of a short YouTube conversation (James Laughlin, Speaker A) examining resilience and grit. Speaker A argues that the opposite of resilience is not simply lack of strength but ‘grit’ conceived as handling problems without being affected or growing from them, and warns of grit’s shadow side.
What would you say is the opposite of resilience?
Well, there are two things. The obvious one is the lack of it. Right. Falling apart. But sometimes falling apart is actually a component of resilience. Being able to absorb the impact of what has unfolded in front of you. Feeling affected by that actually has an incredible power in building your resilience. What I think is the opposite of resilience, and we don't think of it enough, is grit. Just handling stuff. Handling stuff without allowing yourselves to be affected by it, or without growing through those experiences.
So, and that's interesting because the whole idea of grit, often people, like, put it on a pedestal, like, grit is what we need more of. But actually, there's a, I guess, a shadow side to just focusing on grit.
