Have you noticed how palm trees bend in the wind but don’t break? Palm trees have the innate ability to withstand strong hurricane winds, yet they don’t break. They adapt to the change in environment at any given moment. I’ve heard the saying that change is the only constant in life, and it is so true. Change is hard, but what’s even harder is not having a on open mind to adapt and be flexible. Here are three ways that worked for me in becoming more adaptable.
1. Change your mindset: Your survival depends on becoming adaptable.
Train your mind to acknowledge that this change could be a good thing and that you are adaptable. No longer concentrate on what “use to be”. Use to be is in the past. Yesterday is gone and all things are new. The only way to move forward is to think of the change as an opportunity to grow.
2. Be uncomfortable. Become versatile.
Write down your fear and say it out loud to yourself. “I am not comfortable with this new thing.” Anything new is scary because we’re walking into the unknown, so turn your fear into action steps. We don’t know everything, so take that class or hire a coach. Do what you can to learn whatever skill you need to succeed. And hold your imagination. Stop imagining the worse. Talk to someone you trust who can give you an unbiased opinion about the situation. This will give you a fresh perspective so you can ground yourself (don’t hold your breath…just breathe).
3. Change up your routine. Be more flexible.
I’ve made it a habit to shake up my day on purpose. These shake ups are minor, but they are reminder to me that situations don’t always stay the same. For example, I don’t like starting the day without making up my bed first so on random days I won’t make it up. Instead, I will move on to other priorities of the day. Now, when I walk into the room and see an undone bed, I no longer get anxious because I realize that a slight change of plans doesn’t put a damper on my entire day. What happened? I adapted to a new routine and realized that it was okay to shift priorities around.
Overall, the important thing is to have a renewed mind. Our brains have the capacity and flexibility to handle change that enables us to adjust our thoughts and learn new things.. And, whether we realize it or not we are more flexible than we think. Look what many of us had to do in the earlier months of the global pandemic: switched to in-person classes to online, ordered take-out instead of dining in, worked from home, etc. In essence, we were forced to go into different directions to survive. So let’s keep on keeping on and being open to change. There are great additional resources on this topic. Click here to learn more.