I have always felt that Adapability was a great skill to have. The ability to adapt to changing situations that come at us, as we go through life.
Adaptable is defined at dictionary.com, as being able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions.
Back in the 1970’s and 80’s I was a commissioned insurance salesman.
It was not an easy position, waking up every morning unemployed. I had to make sales each week, if I wanted to pay my bills and feed the family. It was a feast or famine existence, until I developed a clientele. This created stress, and I had to be able to Adapt to this Stress.
The hardest part of my work was finding new potential customers, who were willing to make an appointment and talk to me over a coffee.
I had to use my Observation to spot new prospects, Persist in contacting them for an appointment, and be Resilient when appointments were cancelled on short notice.
As tough as being self employed was, I always had another course of action to take. But options in this pandemic seem harder to come by.
As I grew older, I noticed in myself and others, we each have certain boundaries that we are not willing to change, unless pushed.
I was not willing to Adapt to a long drive to work, and enjoyed working from home before it was popular. Fortunately, I was never forced to drive a long distance to work. But comfortable options in this pandemic seem harder to come by.
Many of us have seen TV shows about the changing work environment in the US. Over the years, large manufacturing companies have closed their doors, leaving hundreds or thousands of employees out of a job and career that they may have worked at for decades.
Some TV shows follow a handful of newly unemployed people, as they try to land a new job.
There is usually a lot of adaptability needed to find a new job. What I see is that those who are willing and able to Adapt to new working conditions, do better than those who cry over what they have lost.
Similar to these job changes for the manufacturing sector decades ago, this pandemic seems to be repeating large scale unemployment in society.
Since March 2020, we have found the world dealing with a pandemic. It is on the news every night. I think a pandemic has to rank up there, as one of the biggest changes that most everyone will have to deal with and adapt to, in life.
Social distancing, frequent hand washing, and mask wearing to start. Lots of Adaptability requirements for all of us in the pandemic.
Not only are people dying or in hospital from the virus, but government rules have shut down or limited many businesses from operating, creating large scale unemployment and subsequent economic problems.
If I had no income, I’d be searching pandemic pay too.
I recently heard the term Lifequake. The first word it reminds me of is earthquake, which is very descriptive. The pandemic seems to be a Lifequake, for people who’s lives have been disrupted.
As bad as it is seeing the death count rise, I feel there will be many more “financial deaths” caused by the pandemic.
With large scale unemployment, I wonder how many young families will be forced into bankruptcy, as unemployment persists ?
Predictions are, about 25% of small businesses that are closed because of the pandemic, will not reopen. That is a big financial loss to those owners, and a loss of service for the customers and community they served.
It is unfortunate that these business owners had to adapt to Closing their business.
Adaptability is voluntary for each of us. We either change or we don’t, and we reap the results of that action. That was more true in a more normal time.
In a pandemic though, our whole society is thrown into chaos. It seems that Adaptability is mandatory for all of us, as we are pushed relentlessly into situations that we did not want.
I think it was Mary Tyler Moore who said, “ No one gets out of this life without some pain. “
It seems that life is smooth for a while, and then we get a major bump.
This pandemic though is a major bump for society at large.
Is it in those major life bumps that individual growth occurs ? Does a pandemic in society cause new inventions to the new circumstances ? We know new inventions in tough times in the past, have created successful outcomes.
Adaptability is great to a point. We all have a breaking point, as to how much pressure stress and change we can take.
At some point, pandemic pressures may cause us to have – a nervous breakdown, a heart attack, an eviction, a car or house repossessed, a bankruptcy, an assault on our child or spouse, a divorce, an addiction. If the stress is too much, we start to crack and bad things can happen.
The pandemic is forcing us to live differently. Hopefully we can Adapt to these new life changes with little disruption to family life. If you find the stress is mounting, try to mitigate it through – relaxing, hobbies, recreation, meditating or whatever activities help you feel better.
I hope we all make it through these deadly uncertain times, with as little pain as possible.
Check out this article titled 4 Ways To Boost Your Adaptability, from Goodwin College.