Adaptability

Dictionary.com states that adaptability is being able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions. In school days when I used to study science, there were many examples given in our science books about how plants and animals adapted to changes in the environment in order to survive. Ones who were not receptive to change perished and the ones who adapted survived. One example that you could easily relate to is that of the cactus plant. The cactus plant adapted itself to survive the tough conditions of the desert.

Bhagavad Gita states that change is the rule of nature. I do not think it is difficult for any one of us to make sense of this. We cannot avoid change. We ourselves are changing every second. Our body is changing and so is our thinking. With age our priorities also change. The toys that mattered to us the most during childhood find no relevance now. At the most it may still find place in your show case. However, you won’t find yourselves playing with those toys now. As time passes everything around us is changing. In a storm, the most rigid of trees get uprooted. It is the flexible ones that survive the storm. 

In your professional life too, you may quit one organization and join another for better prospects. In the initial days you will find it difficult to adjust to the changes. The rules in the new organization would be different from the previous one. The way the management functions will be totally different. The colleagues will be different. You may miss your old friends. However, you would be the one who will be making adjustments and not the organization. Adapting to new work environment will be your responsibility. No organization will change for an individual. You won’t be able to survive in the new organization for long if you don’t become accustomed.

My personal experience too has shown that being flexible to change has actually helped me achieve success. Being rigid would not have helped at all. In fact, it would have done more harm than good. Resistance to change is the biggest blunder that one can commit. Look around you; economics, society, technology everything around you is changing constantly. We are always trying to acclimatize ourselves to these changes.  

Friends, be receptive to change. Show that willingness to adapt as adaptation is the key to survival.