I recently guested on a podcast, created by my friend and colleague Michelle Seabrook about how to build, develop and maintain resilience. In preparing for the recording, I was reminded of just how affected I was as a child growing up in the 80's by the films and media presence of the Rambo and Terminator characters, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger respectively.
As a child, lacking in male role models, these two characters, and the actors who portrayed them, signified a version of masculinity that was celebrated by society and influenced my understanding of what it meant to be a man. More specificaly, I now recognise how they affected my relationship with resilience and ability to take stock and take care of myself. Thankfully I have been able to develop my overall self-image and relationship with resilience in a much more healthy, rewarding direction over the past decade but it was interesting in preparing for the podcast to consider just how much the influence of these two characters had permeated my behaviours.
If this specific interpretation chimes with you or you're interested in developing your own resilience in general, then I would encourage you to listen to Michelle's series of podcasts which can be found here.