DW's Blog
Adaptability
by DW Green — May 25, 2016
POPtrait
I’ve been reading Super Brain, a book written by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi. It’s an excellent book and I highly recommend reading it. In an early chapter, Heroes Of Super Brain, the authors write about Albert Einstein’s ability for ADAPTABILITY. Einstein used his brain in a way that any person can learn. I believe this idea of adaptability can be very useful for supermarket owners and leaders. (Well, everyone for that matter!)
Einstein adapted by facing the unknown and conquering it. His field was physics, but the unknown confronts everyone on a daily basis. Life is full of unexpected challenges. To adapt to the unknown, Einstein developed three strengths and avoided three obstacles:
Three strengths: Letting go, being flexible, hanging loose.
Three obstacles: Habits, conditioning, stuckness.
You can measure a person’s adaptability by how much they are able to let go, remain flexible, and hang loose in the face of difficulties. You can measure how poorly a person adapts by the dominance of old habits and conditioning that keep them stuck.
When you face a new problem, you can solve it in old ways or in a new way. The first is by far the easier path to follow.
How to be adaptable:
Stop repeating what never worked in the first place.
Stand back and ask for a new solution.
Stop struggling at the level of the problem—the answer never lies there. This is a BIG one for me!
Work on your own stuckness. Don’t worry about the other person.
When the old stresses are triggered, walk away.
See righteous anger for what it really is—destructive anger dressed up to sound positive.
Rebuild the bonds that have been frayed. (Always something to be aware of)
Take on more of the burden than you think you deserve.
Stop attaching so much weight to being right. In the grand scheme of things, being right is insignificant compared with being happy.
You are becoming more adaptable when:
You can laugh at yourself.
You see that there’s more to the situation than you realize.
Other people no longer look like antagonists simply because they disagree with you.
Negotiating starts to work, and you genuinely participate in it.
Compromise becomes a positive word.
You can hang loose in a state of relaxed alertness.
You see things in a way you didn’t before, and this delights you.
Just a snippet from the book. It’s very interesting. It’s fun to learn new stuff!!
Filed Under: DW's Blog
