The ability to adapt varies naturally from one person to another. Yet, regardless of your starting point, adaptability is one of the most important traits you can cultivate.
It’s what keeps you from getting paralyzed when the unexpected arises, and allows you to bounce back from setbacks quickly and easily.
Furthermore, it allows you to leap into action when needed, using creative problem-solving and learning as you go to find optimal solutions for any potential issue.
Being able to adapt to different situations is valuable in all areas of your life, from the workplace to personal pursuits and relationships.
If it’s something you struggle with, here’s how to gently nurture it so that you can deal with life’s inevitable changes with more grace and peace.
8 key ways to nurture adaptability:
1. Learn to let go of attachment to one specific plan or outcome.
Although it may be frustrating when plans change unexpectedly, that’s actually an opportunity to work on your adaptability.
Many of us create mental maps that plan out everything that will happen in a day, including responsibilities, downtime, meals, and so on. As a result, when something throws a spanner into those plans, a cascade effect can throw everything else into chaos.
If you’re the type of person who finds comfort and security in reliable plans and schedules, it can be deeply upsetting to have this schedule upended.
To counter this, make a point of learning how to let go of your attachment to specific plans or outcomes. That way, if things need to change direction unexpectedly, you won’t feel as distressed or disoriented.
You can do this by keeping in mind multiple possible outcomes rather than remaining fixated on one.
The day isn’t going to unfold as you had planned? That’s okay: you have plenty of other pursuits or interests that you can do instead. The project you’ve been working on didn’t have the expected outcome? You can explore what worked and what didn’t so you can take a different approach next time.
2. Respond to situations with curiosity instead of trepidation.
Many people like to plan ahead when it comes to the things they do, and they don’t like to be surprised. As a result, when something unexpected arises, they may react with trepidation because of all the unknown variables ahead of them.
When situations like these happen, try to respond with curiosity instead of fear.
Remind yourself that very little in life is ever actually known, so trying to plan out every possible variable is usually an exercise in futility.
The best course of action is to respond to a situation with questions about what’s unfolding so you can gather as much information as possible. Once you have it, then you can determine the best action to take.
3. Get creative with your problem-solving.
This can be incredibly helpful when you come across situations that are less than ideal, but that still need to be dealt with.
There are tools and solutions that are tailored perfectly for just about every task, but they won’t always be available. As such, you can see what you do have at hand that can be used instead.
For example, I’ve used a butter knife as an impromptu screwdriver to fix a loose porch step, and I’ve seen my partner make a gel of boiled flax seeds to bake with when we didn’t have eggs in the house.
Whenever you’re faced with a perceived obstacle, aim for a creative solution instead of letting frustration or defeatism rule the day.
You can do this by looking around and taking stock of what’s available to you, and then figuring out which approaches will work most effectively. From there, all you have left to do is try them until something works!
4. Go try new things on a regular basis.
Many people who get anxious about the unknown prefer to remain in the comfort zones where they feel confident in their knowledge and abilities, rather than risk awkwardness or lack of skill in unfamiliar circumstances.
But none of us were born knowing how to do everything: it all had to be learned and practiced.
This is why it’s so important to expand your horizons by trying new, unfamiliar things on a regular basis.
You can start small, like visiting a new coffee shop or restaurant a couple of times a month. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, travel to a different area and wander around. Visit new shops and talk to different people than usual.
Doing things like this regularly will allow you to learn how to think on your feet and adapt to the unexpected.
5. Mix up your routine.
In addition to trying out new things to expand your horizons, challenge yourself to come up with new approaches to your regular routines.
For example, if you normally drive to work, try taking public transit or biking there instead on occasion, adjusting your departure time and allowing a bit of extra travel time so you aren’t late.
Doing things like this, with a little bit of planning if needed, adds gentle elements of uncertainty into your life that you can learn to navigate with relative ease.
It’s unlikely that you’ll encounter anything insurmountable by doing so, but you may need to negotiate small talk with someone in a bus queue or have to choose a different morning snack if the danishes or bagels are sold out at the bakery when you get there.
Every small adjustment like this can help you to become more adaptable in your day-to-day life.
6. Approach new situations with cautious optimism.
When the unexpected occurs, some people raise their shields and balk at the possibility of change.
In contrast, others may embrace change with great enthusiasm without thinking of the long-term ramifications of their choices. For instance, fully embracing a new technology before all the bugs have been worked out and ending up worse off as a result.
As with most things in life, a middle ground is often the better place to land. As such, when an unexpected new situation arises, try to find the middle ground between refusal and full acceptance.
Analyze things to determine their positives and negatives, and once you’ve sorted that out, you can choose which direction is the best one for you to take.
7. Think of how to make something work instead of immediately assuming that it won’t.
Many of us have faced scenarios in which someone has stated that we needed to do something unexpected.
For instance, an employer might have told us that we needed to move a deadline up by several days, or we found out that a rental agreement we’d signed for an apartment had fallen through due to termite infestation or similar.
For many people, an event like this would be cause for panic. There’s no way the work can be done on time! And if that apartment fell through, then they’d be homeless!
Instead of immediately reacting this way, we can pause and put adaptability into practice.
That deadline could be met if we brought on a couple of additional staff members and worked overtime. And we could still rent that flat if we crashed with friends or family members for a few days until the fumigation had cleared. In fact, we could even help out with vacuuming and cleanup to confirm good faith with the rental.
Most problems have a solution: you often just need to be willing to change your approach to find it.
8. Work on keeping calm when the unexpected — or an emergency — arises.
Being able to switch gears and change direction quickly and easily is a hallmark of an adaptable mindset.
But some people freeze up when the unexpected occurs and instead try to double down to make the original plan unfold. That may no longer be viable, however, and trying to hold onto it is like trying to write on wet paper: it’ll just dissolve in your hands.
If you can’t write on that paper, you look around to see what else you can use. Maybe you write on a piece of cardboard, or grab a marker and write on a wall if you need to. The same goes for any other plan.
In an emergency situation, or if plans have to change for another reason, you can take stock of everything around you and determine the best course of action. It may involve a similar but slightly changed approach, or something totally different that would work far better.
The key is to find a solution while maintaining your calm, rather than panicking and abandoning the endeavor altogether or trying to force something that simply can’t work.
Final thoughts…
Whenever plans change, try to approach the situation playfully and curiously instead of reacting with anger or fear.
Life can never be scripted, and nurturing adaptability makes existence a lot more comfortable and far less stressful.
Try to have faith in yourself and trust that you have the ability to adapt to anything that may unfold in your life.
There’s no need to crumble when things don’t pan out as planned: you can just change your initial approach and find a creative solution that works better for the situation you’ve found yourself in.
