The Ability to Change

The ability to change your stripes, which they used to say wasn’t possible, is now more possible then ever. Ability to change with the times and to do it before the change even arrives, feels great. Adaptability is indespensible in fact within the world of business and within your communities. It’s a great resource to find and one to be. Learning to anticipate what’s coming, then moving to meet it, and then flowing with it are highly saught after skills people want to align with.

Let’s start with the simple fact that our lives are unpredictable. Even when trying to find success. But, if Tiger Woods who in 2009 took a nosedive on his standings ranking as low as 58th place, then turned it around this year to win it all, so can we. Tiger is a perfect example of how setbacks, when we can learn from them, can be a catalyst for needed change. He focused on solutions rather than all the problems around him including those that said professionally he would never return to the top of his game.

Don’t wait it out thinking something better will happen or come along. Go looking for it. Going looking for trouble. Not that kind, the kind that people are trying to find a solve for. Constantly searching for your own improvement is a great way to practice this very thing. Be a great getter of feedback from those around you. Before taking action on the feedback, theme it out. Look for the common threads in the feedback. Not all feedback is correct. But, if you get enough of it, you will see where the common opportunistic plays are that you can go after to adapt or change.

Some times you have to go against the wind. Buck the trend you see around you, be the change that no one saw coming. It takes a bit of searching out as well as listening to what others are asking for. I love going after a need my co-workers have that is completely opposite of what I might be after. It makes me uncomfortable, it’s hard work, and it teaches me something I might not have learned. You won’t find your change or next evolution by staying in the current floating down the river of life with it. You find it in innovating against something you don’t know or haven’t learned.

Did you know building adaptability is an innate way your brains work best? Neither did I. Our brains have incredible plasticity. Our brains have this amazing capacity for continuous alteration of the neural pathways and synapses in response to the types of experiences you take in. That’s why I’m so addicted to learning. The more I do, the better I seem to perform because I have so much to pull from stored in my head. Our brain is constantly looking for input even when we don’t intentionally put it in there, so it can adapt. Let it adapt by feeding it with what you want it to adapt to.

Do you think when you fail and have learns, you learn how to fail or succeed? Adaptability and your acumen to do it is actually at its best learning from our mistakes. Therefore, your failures are actually incredible things we can learn from to adapt and change. We can take learning from our mistakes to far. There’s a mindfulness lesson in that. Be intentional and then move on. One of the best ways to do this is experimenting. This can be the corner stone of effective adaptability.

Take your time in adapting. It’s important as you go to keep an open mind. You’re next breakthrough is in that journey to be more adaptable. It’s about looking ahead, reading the signs, and then charting the dive into the unknown. Nothing is impossible. It’s all will.

✌🏻 Shawn