How Adaptable Are You?

I meet lots of people in the personal development circle on a regular basis, and most have the idea that to grow, they need to have the knowledge, they need to learn, and so they go for workshops after workshops only to realise that after spending lots of money being a workshop junkie, they are still the same. 

What is missing?

If you are a person who believes in personal development, and you want to grow as a person emotionally, mentally and spiritually, one of the most important qualities to develop is your ability to adapt and change. 

There is certainly no point in having lots of information and knowledge AND being the most incapable human on the planet. As we all know by now intelligence has nothing to do with how well we are able to make of our lives. 

So how do you find out if you are adaptable or not? Here are two questions here for you:

Do you think that people are born with a certain level of intelligence and they have to use their intelligence to make the most of their lives?

OR

Do you think that people can make something out of their lives through hard work and effort no matter what is their level of intelligence? 

If you answered 1, then chances are you think that we are born with a fixed mindset and that we just have to deal with what we have. If you answered 2, then chances are you think that people have a growth mindset and that people can adapt, change, grow no matter what is their level of intelligence. 

Well, there are both of these kinds of people in the world. Carol Dwerk the author of Mindset has done extensive research on this topic, and it is a book I highly recommend!

If you think/feel that you have a fixed mindset, then working harder to learn to adapt is key to your ability to grow. This simply means you have to work harder in going beyond your comfort zone. Every time you hit a brick wall, you need to ask yourself what you need to do to knock the wall down, and do not just accept the situation as it is. A fixed mindset person in some situations can be extremely rigid in how they think/feel the world should behave, sometimes for them the distinction between black and white is very clearly drawn, and any grey areas make them very uncomfortable and they will do any thing in their power to get out of the grey zone. For them, the world must not have any grey areas. 

In the area of personal development, unfortunately for those with a fixed mindset, grey areas abound. This is because as one is in a transition from one level to the next level of growth, the grey areas allow them to see the world from two levels of perspective, with the understanding that there is no wrong or right, and each level is suitable for where the person is at that time. 

Keep in mind that I am not talking about absolutes here. There are some things in life that are absolutely wrong and absolutely right. For eg. killing is absolutely wrong. But killing to protect one’s young is no longer an absolute. 

If you have a growth mindset, you are more open to change and adapt, and the key to your success is to maximise your ability to change. And to what degree you wish to adapt to change. A person in this category have a higher ability to socialise with different groups of people seamlessly, they are able to adapt their behaviour, manner of communication to suit the situation. And because of their ability to adapt, they see opportunities in most situations, even in a bad situation. This opens up the landscape of growth and personal development for them. Because of this their rate of growth and development can exceed those with a fixed mindset. 

One is not better than the other. Because no matter which category you belong to, you need to use different aspects of your human intelligence to grow, develop and be of good to the world. 

The question to ask yourself is how willing are you to adapt to change in order to grow?

© 2019 Shamala Tan

Shamala Tan is an author, spiritual entrepreneur and healer.  Her work focuses on transforming the lives of others on the spiritual, emotional, mental and earthly level.

One of her success stories as an author is to being featured alongside New York’s bestsellers Sonia Choquette, Robert Allen, Arielle Ford, Marci Shimoff as well as Christine Kloser in the book Pebbles In The Pond.

Shamala’s clients include small business owners, holistic practitioners as well as those seeking to find more significant meaning and value in life. Shamala offers laser coaching to her clients on a one-to-one basis or in a group environment, offline as well as online.