Adaptability and success — two sides of the same coin

Adaptability and success are two sides of the same coin.

They're inseparable.

Many times, well-meaning people put obstacles in our path. "You can't do <whatever>." They think they're being realistic and preventing us from a painful failure. 

And they would be right...if we tried to do whatever it was as who we were at that moment. But humans are endlessly adaptable. We have the potential to be constantly learning and growing.

Just because you as you are now couldn't do it, doesn't mean you'll never be able to do it. Future you may be able to do it with ease.

In fact, sometimes obstacles provide the seeds of our greatest achievements.

Life in a Wheelchair 

My coworker's daughter was born with a birth defect. Her spine didn't connect to her pelvis. (He explained the exact details, but thirty years later, I only recall “they didn’t connect”.)

The type of surgery necessary to connect them could only be done after her bones stopped growing. But none of her leg muscles would have developed during that time. The pediatric specialist warned them that she'd spend her life in a wheelchair.

They returned home. A year later, they brought their daughter back to the specialist.

He was shocked when they put her on the floor, and she started crawling. Medical science insisted she shouldn't have been able to use her legs.

"It's a miracle!" The doctor exclaimed. "How is she able to crawl?"

"I never told her she couldn't," my coworker replied.

Adaptation took care of the rest.

Business adaptations

We don't just adapt to our personal situations. Our businesses adapt, too.

I used to work for IBM. When you think of IBM, you think of computers, right? But they were in business for decades before the computer was even invented.

They originally made cheese slicers, time clocks, and tabulating machines. (Those were early precursors to adding machines.)

If you'd asked Thomas Watson if his company could manufacture computers, back when he was selling time clocks, he would have said it couldn't be done. But the company's engineers learned, and grew, and created tabulating machines. They adapted.

And then IBM’s engineers learned more, grew more, and created mainframe computers, PCs, and laptops.

They adapted to the changing world.

Embrace change

Think of the world's most successful people:

• Elon Musk, who shifted from finance to space travel and electric cars

• Jeff Bezos, who went from selling books to virtually everything (including space travel)

• Oprah Winfrey, who transitioned from a talk show host to a media mogul (who currently has no plans for space travel, but who knows?)

What do they all have in common?

They all embraced change.

Obstacles are opportunities in disguise. They only block your path when you refuse to adapt.

Adapt to succeed 

Clearly, adaptability is key to long term, sustainable success. But how do we become better at adapting?

Here's the secret:

1. Understand that adaptability is the key to unlocking your potential.

2. View change as inevitable, but growth as optional. Choose growth.

3. Recognize that every challenge is a chance to learn, to adapt, and to succeed.

So, don't fear the obstacles. Embrace them. Adapt.

And remember, the only real obstacle is the refusal to change. 

Don't let that be you. 

Be adaptable. Be successful.

Top 3 Blocks Dissolved This Week

1. People pleasing - removed “you only see your value reflected by others”

2. Free floating anxiety - removed “you don’t feel safe”

3. Crisis of lost items - processed negative self-talk with compassion

Note that item #3 was not specifically a block. Both my husband and I lost items on our trip to Indianapolis to see the eclipse. He managed to lose his boarding pass (still not sure how that happened). I managed to lose my plastic dental guard. We remained calm, and did not beat ourselves up over the situation. We used the backup boarding pass for him (yes, this is why I print out an extra). And I was able to find the dental guard underneath my airplane seat. This just illustrates how the tools we used to help us overcome blocks (such as needing to be perfect to be loved) can also be used to handle similar trigger moments in the future.

This week’s inspirational words come from retired US Army General Stanley A. McChrystal. Not only did he lead soldiers, as a Senior Fellow of Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, he taught future diplomats and business leaders about international relations.

This addresses the need for adaptability in today’s fast-paced world. No longer do we have the luxury of convening a think tank or exploratory committee to analyze a situation. Now, we need to solve things immediately. Or at least, pretty darn soon.

The prospect is made more difficult in that the problem we’re solving is itself mutating and changing. So, instead of finding the absolute best solution, that is the most efficient, it’s better to find general solutions that can themselves be easily adapted in the future.

To your growth and adaptability!

Jennifer Dunne, Caribbean Compassion Coaching