“It’s not the strongest or the smartest of species that survives, but the one most adaptable to change.” ~Charles Darwin

In order to be “successful” you can bet you’ll need to first survive— to be alive. Seems obvious enough and when considered in that context, one really cannot over-emphasis the importance of adaptability as it relates to not just survival but the attainment of success.

In her bestseller Mindset (Amazon), Dr. Carol Dweck points to grit as a key predictor of success. Angela Duckworth (correction) is the author of GRIT (Amazon).

Martin then shares his take on what a GRIT pyramid might look like and the visual (link here to related post) really underscores how both resilience and adaptability are essential. No adaptability— no grit.

It seems we all know people who experience the same poor results and yet continue with the same behaviors. The inference is that if they could take the time to first reflect on the outcome they desire and then adapt their behaviors and habits they will improve their results.

“It’s hard to have adaptability without that reflection component…”

The next dimension of adaptability falls under interpersonal relationships. Once we can acknowledge that everyone sees the world a little differently, it’s imperative then to be flexible and willing to adapt our own viewpoints to meet others.

Finally, we’re cautioned not to fixate on models and strategies even if they have worked in the past. The fact is, times change, people change, technologies change, etc. For instance; the Taxi cab was a terrific business model and it has been greatly disrupted by new technologies and companies like Lyft and Uber have capitalized. Adaptability played a key role for those new companies to take shape and shift an entire industry.

The idea is to reflect upon your own life and any current challenges and ask if these may present opportunities for you to be more adaptable and flexible, more open to other alternatives and solutions?

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