Category Archives: Adaptation

stop a steamroller

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“You will not stop a steamroller by standing in front of it, but by letting it run out of steam.”

-Laurent Carrel, Messages from Melanie

image of a steamroller

Image from thoughtleadersllc.com

Do you know someone who unleashes anger, judgement, frustration, and upset on you or others from time to time?

Once they’re on a roll, there seems no stopping them, but there is one technique that can take the steam out of them. Choose to demonstrate interest in them by listening even more fully to their issues and concerns.

Use well-structured open-ended questions and layering to gain a greater depth of understanding. With this technique, you will likely help them quickly run out of steam.

EXERCISE:

Where and with whom could you try this technique, to create more work-ability in this important relationship?

The Real Question is not

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“The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before your death.”

—Osho, Mystic Guru and Spiritual Leader

Image of Osho

Image from znanje.org

Over twenty years ago I attended a seminar with almost 200 other people. The session leader posed the question:

Why do most people wake up in the morning?

After the audience provided all the expected responses such as to go to work, or to start the new day, he shared his own thought, which was:

People wake up in the morning because they did not die in their sleep.

When the shock of his answer dissipated from the audience, we began a most interesting and engaging inquiry into what it means to be fully alive. Common aspects of being “fully alive” included traveling, learning, extraordinary relationships, spiritual pursuits, and making a bigger difference in the world.

EXERCISE:

What adjustments and changes are you willing to make in your life to cause you to enthusiastically and energetically bound out of bed each morning?

What one action will you take immediately to build this into a life-changing habit?

If your feet are firmly planted on the ground

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“If your feet are firmly planted on the ground, you’ll never be able to dance.”

—Iris Johansen, Crime Fiction and Romance Writer

Image of dancer's bare feet

Image from Flickr by Roger Jones

Who do you know personally or professionally that is exceedingly stubborn, rigid, set in their ways, and rarely budges in their thinking and actions? These are people who almost never produce new and better results because they are living examples of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

Who are the people you know that are open-minded, flexible, and even playful—people who “dance” with life, always exploring and creating new possibilities around them?

EXERCISE:

Where in your world is it appropriate to stand firm? Where is it time to be more flexible and dance to the music of your own life vision?

Heated Situations

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“When you want to fight fire with fire, remember that the fire department uses water.”

—Author Unknown

Image from Flickr by Jeshua.nace

Image from Flickr by Jeshua.nace

When was the last time you were in a heated argument with tempers flaring and things getting out of control? If you cannot recall a specific event, just turn on a local, national, or global news program to see plenty of examples!

Rarely do such interactions result in win/win outcomes. Most of the time, we are left with win/lose or lose/lose results.

When we consider how to put out undesirable fires, all we need to do is take a bit of coaching from professional fire-fighters: use water to reduce the temperature of burning materials and extinguish the flame.

EXERCISE:

What new and more constructive ways of dealing with heated situations can you find to produce a better result for everyone involved?

Friday Review: Adaptation

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Friday Review: Adaptation

How adaptable are you as you go about your day? Here are a few adaptation-related posts you may have missed. Click on the Quote to read the full message:

QC #1006a

 

“Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes.”

 

 

QC #1006b

“A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.”

 

 

 

QC #1006c

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

If You Are Irritated

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“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”

-Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet

Image from Flickr by Orbital Joe

Image from Flickr by Orbital Joe

When was the last time you visited a fine jewelry store? Imagine yourself in one, examining all the beautiful diamonds and gem stones.

I am sure that If you were to go back in time to when these stones were pulled form the earth, you wouldn’t recognize them. They would be dull, rough, and unremarkable. It takes considerable rubbing and skilled cutting to bring out their brilliance.

EXERCISE:

How and where can you examine and appreciate the daily rubs of life as experiences and resources to bring about your personal and professional brilliance?

“Every success story…”

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“Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision, and change.”

—Sir Richard Branson, KBE, founder of Virgin Group

Image from www.64ouncegames.com

Image from www.64ouncegames.com

We all know that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Life in general, and our journey toward success, never really works that way.

To navigate our world we must, as Sir Branson suggests, adapt, revise, and change our approach moment to moment. This iterative process works very much like an internal GPS system, constantly informing us of where we are, and where we wish to go. It helps us plot the alternative routes we can take to progress toward our desired destination.

EXERCISE:

Where is it necessary to adapt, revise, or change your approach to tell a more successful tale in either your personal or professional life?

“Fall in love with the problem…”

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“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”

—Kaaren Hanson, VP of Design /Innovations/ Intuit

QC #853

Through the course of our lives, we have all developed strategies for success which we apply to the daily challenges we face in our professional and personal worlds.

As long as these default solutions work reasonably well, we rarely seek alternative solutions that may actually work far better.

When we embrace, and even fall in love with, the problems we face, we generate a higher ability for innovation and creativity, discovering possible solutions that were previously unrecognized.

EXERCISE:

How might falling in love with your problems help you release some of the “sacred cow solutions” you have used over the years? What new and potentially more successful solutions would be possible?

“The world is full of…”

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“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

—W.B. Yeats, Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature

Image from freger.weebly.com

Image from freger.weebly.com

Take a moment to examine your current ability to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.

Did you know that:

      • A Silvertip Grizzly Bear can smell you from 18 miles away?
      • Jumping spiders can see four primary colors versus the three that humans see?
      • Some birds have an internal GPS that acts as a compass, to help them find their way home?
      • The bat uses echolocation to navigate and catch its supper?
      • Catfish have 10 times more taste buds than humans (100,000 versus 10,000)?

EXERCISE:

How can you capture more of the magic life has to offer by sharpening and focusing your senses? One way to develop these capacities is to focus on each sense separately, whenever possible.

“Procrastination is the art…”

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“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.”

—Don Marquis, American humorist, journalist, and author

Image from connectedhotel.com

Image from connectedhotel.com

My father Marvin is a great teacher relative to today’s quote. One of the characteristics he demonstrates quite often, given his age and occasional forgetfulness, is what I call reverse procrastination. He has developed a “do it immediately” approach to many things.

The new habit can be surprising, because he often stops in the middle of one activity and starts another that has just come to mind. If he doesn’t do it when it comes to mind, he is likely to forget to do it at all. The up side of it is that he does remember to go back and finish the first activity!

EXERCISE:

Where do you fit on the procrastination continuum of “do it now,” or “it can wait for whenever”?

What adjustments are needed to make sure you are not simply keeping up with yesterday?