19 - Adaptability

Today's challenge:

LExplore someplace new.earn a new skill or complete a free online course.

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What is this?

Adaptability is the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions

Why is it important?

A high level of adaptability means you’re generally better able to handle change successfully. Adaptability also tends to improve your level of resilience, meaning that periods of uncertainty are less likely to impact your overall personal wellbeing. Adaptable people tend to be happier and more content as they’re not struggling against change.

How can you improve your adaptability?

• Be willing to adapt. Rigidity in your thoughts and behaviours does not support your ability to adapt to new situations. You must be open to experience change and have the self-belief that you will find a way to cope with the change or find a solution to your problem.

• Be a good observer. Look for opportunities in every difficult situation. Even failures can provide valuable learning experiences.

• Set small personal challenges. Keep testing your comfort zone. Stretch yourself in small ways to practice your adaptability. Each time you overcome an uncomfortable situation, you gain experience and confidence for the next challenge. Cardalyst and the expansion packs (coming soon) has been designed to help improve your adaptability and resilience.

Quite often, the terms adaptability and resilience are used interchangeably but they are very different concepts.

• To be adaptable means that you recognize that something has changed in your environment, and you must come up with options to deal with it. It is more an intellectual exercise.

• Resilience is an emotional trait. It is a combination of determination, will, or grit to push through and execute an option you have selected for the challenge at hand.

Deep Dive

"Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life" by Dr. Spencer Johnson

Simple, short, and memorable lessons about responding to unexpected change.

Waypoint:

“The most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but

adaptability”. - Charles Darwin