The question that has been posed, in several different ways over the past few months, is how do individuals better cope with how everything seems to be changing? We have heard from several individuals, “Why is everything changing?” “Is anything ever going to be normal, again?”
“Change-fatigue” is the experience that individuals may demonstrate when the pace of change and the consistency of change becomes overwhelming. Some of the symptoms may include various forms of resistance to change: anxiety, anger and withdrawal. Change-fatigue, within organizations, has been written about for years, however, we are starting to hear it discussed within the confines of everyday life. On so many levels, within the past two years, many established practices, supply-chain, health-care delivery systems, hospitality to name only a few have been impacted and required to change both processes and expectations. Everyone has been impacted by the heightened pace of change.
To strengthen our personal capacity to deal with the rapid changes, we need to reflect on how adaptable we are to the times. James Hollis wrote, “Learning to live with ambiguity is learning to live with how life really is, full of complexities and strange surprises.” Perhaps there is a growing awareness that life and living are about not knowing, about being more tolerant and accepting, but not settling. Resilience is about bouncing back, and adaptability is about bouncing forward.
Some thoughts on how to strengthen one’s adaptability:
Encourage personal risk taking.
Check your tolerance for things being the way they are and not the way you think they ought to be.
Be clear on what is clear.
Know what you know and know what you don’t know.
Listen to different perspectives.
Take an improvisational class.
Some thoughts on how to strengthen a team’s adaptability:
Build team confidence.
Clarify how roles fit together.
Envision alternative scenarios.
Develop a culture of safety.
Key Takeaways
Building adaptability enhances ones’ resilience.
Changes are occurring at a quickened pace.
Change-fatigue is real.
Best Practices
Read about and observe how the animal kingdom has adapted to survive.
Visit a Senior Living Community and engage with a member and see how they have adapted to changing stages of living.
Think back over your life and identify 10 adaptable strategies that you have employed to move forward.
Things to Limit
Thinking that there is only one way to do something.
That you are alone in each of your challenges.
Cocooning during a crisis.
Quote of the Week
“The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is “ambiguity”: the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces-both individual and social.”
~Paul Tillich
It is easy to feel like everything is uncertain in times of uncertainty. Rather than succumb to this thought, when you start to look at things closer, you probably know more than you thought you did. Step back, look around, learn from others and be willing to ask questions. Also, allow yourself to make mistakes.
Be well,
The paraDocs
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The paraDocs are Dr. Francis L. Battisti, PhD, Psychotherapist, Distinguished Psychology Professor and former Executive V.P and Chief Academic Officer and Dr. Helen E. Battisti PhD, RDN, CDN, Chief Nutrition Officer, at SpNOD, Health Promotion Specialist, Research and Clinical Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and former Assistant Professor.
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