Adam Markel's Latest Book: Change Proof

Life happens, and not always the way we expect it to. Every single day we face change, stress, and uncertainty. What if you could learn to thrive no matter what life throws your way? Resilience expert Adam Markel and his inspiring guests explore breakthrough strategies to fully embrace change and build the resilience required to become change-proof.

Today is 2/22/23. 2022 on the Change Proof Podcast. And that's not all it is. It's also the launch and the release date of, you guessed it, the book by the same name, Change Proof. It has been a long and a beautiful road leading up until this moment. For those of you that have never given birth to a book, I will say it is excruciating and it is beautiful. It is magical. And of course, it's a wonder when you look back on it that it actually comes to fruition because there are so many pitfalls along the way that can derail a project like this. And for many of you who have been listening to the Conscious Pivot Podcast over the last number of years, you know that I wrote a book by that title, Pivot, some years back, and it became a big bestseller. And it was a wonderful experience, an incredible journey. I don't think I'll ever stop talking about the principles of pivoting, certainly not. But I think in some ways is again resembling the analogy of giving birth to something because there's a lot of pain associated with it. But at a certain point, just like in the case of my wife and the 4 children that she gave birth to, at a certain point you sort of just forget The pain. You forget what it was like at the time. So you think, oh, wouldn't that be a good idea to do that again? And then, of course, you get to revisit that whole process, and it is a glorious process. And I feel just incredibly blessed to have engaged, embarked on it. And it has taken a village for sure. So I don't want to for any second imply that I did this even remotely on my own. Resilience. It's the unsung hero in every Every success story that you will ever hear about, and in times of massive change and disruption, the kind of rapid change that we're all experiencing as leaders, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we have to learn how to not only increase our own resilience but that of our teams. So right now, we have a powerful opportunity for you to find out just how resilient you are. Some years ago, my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken, and all you have to do to get your own free resilience leader. assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. But Change Proof is a book that I really feel meeting the moment right now. And I don't know that we could have ever planned Certainly couldn't have predicted that this book would be so timely, that it would be such an important topic and so relevant in the lives of so many people at this time in history, coming out of a pandemic, still in the midst of the challenges facing businesses, facing individuals, anxiety and uncertainty, and the constant air that there's still another shoe to drop, that there's still something more that we have to brace ourselves for. I think there's a great deal of that concern out there, a great deal of fear, and a great deal of discomfort in the constant and never-ending disruption that seems to be the order of the day and has been that way for at least At least the last 18 months plus. So it is just with great pleasure that we are today releasing and launching this book. And I'm going to dare say, have the audacity to say, it's a wonderful book because it is. And I say that maybe not so objectively, I suppose. I don't know that I could truly be objective about that, but the book isn't about me. And it is so rich with the stories and the insights of other people that it's not much for me to make that leap in making that statement and to take the leap of faith even that many other people are going to find this book so valuable that they'll want to share it with members of their family, members of their team, and that organizations will use it because it really is in so many ways, not just a sign of the times that we're talking about how it is that we deal with uncertainty, that we are looking to create more resiliency in our daily lives and in the lives of the people that we are working with, the people that we are leading, and the people that we are being led by, but it's a book that has fundamental, tangible, tactical ways to develop ourselves personally and professionally, ways that we are able to engage in the pursuit of the things that we want in our lives with so much more energy. Because ultimately, this book is going to reveal a simple yet profound process for how it is that you are able to regenerate your energy and regenerate it at such a level, at such a capacity that you will be able to do more, get more accomplished without becoming exhausted in the process. Because that really is, I think, what is the true epidemic in our world. The fact that in our way of doing things, in our way of being even, We're perpetuating a model, an old paradigm, and an old model that doesn't work anymore. And by that, I mean, it's an exhaustion model. It's the idea that somehow or another, we have to continue to do more and more ourselves, and that somehow or another, there isn't time for anything other than meeting the demands and the responsibilities of the day. And that's fundamentally flawed logic. Resilience is not about endurance, as so many people think. They think it's just about how you can outlast, outrun the catastrophes, outrun the disruptions, outlast your competitors. And that is fundamentally inaccurate. And I say that because this is a book about what we've learned in researching this topic, in researching more than 3,000 leaders that were good enough and kind enough to provide information to us through our resilience leadership assessment. And through those resilient leader assessments, we've learned that it is not even remotely true that trying to outrun the challenges in our professional lives or in our personal lives ever works. We never can outrun those things, and we certainly can't outrun them forever. Any more than the virus of competition that we are all— have always, I think, been dealing with, have been kind of brought up to feel that we're in competition, truly in competition with others. And that competition, that way of competing is about outlasting or outdoing, outworking other people. And that's again, a paradigm that is old and it's time for it to be dismantled. Because that paradigm, the paradigm of trying to outrun or outlast, outcompete, only leads to burnout. In the end, it just leads to the same place. All roads kind of lead to Rome in that sense. They lead to exhaustion. They ultimately lead to burnout. I know that from my days as a workaholic attorney. I didn't spend just a minute in that profession. I was there for 18 years. And so I know it both individually and in seeing what it looked like on the faces and in the bodies of the people I was around, my colleagues. So all of our research having taken place over the last several years, and as I said, thousands and thousands of these leader assessments from companies and leaders all over the globe, everything from Fortune 50 organizations to startup organizations, We found that the heart of resilience is about how we recharge. The heart of resilience is about recovery, not about endurance. It's not about bouncing back from setback. It's about our capacity to bounce forward, to actually learn and grow in the process of working through the challenges that we all will face now and forevermore. That's why the title of this book is The Power of uncertainty, utilizing, leveraging the power of the unknown, the power of uncertainty, the power of adversity for long-term growth. And I think this book in many ways is about the future. And that's one of the things I really love about it. We can learn from the future. I don't know that everybody necessarily knows how it is that we can learn from the future, but I'll give you one great example to sort of make this point. At any point in your life in the past, where you were worried, where you were in doubt about something, maybe even had some fear about something, where something was a pretty serious challenge, there was one thing that you could have learned, you could have known in that moment about the future, that the future would've taught you. Because the future is something that can teach us, believe it or not. The future is something we can learn from. The future would've taught you, just like it would've taught me, During that period of challenge from the past, that you were going to learn and grow from that situation, that that situation would've run its course and it would've led you forward. In fact, you wouldn't be here now listening to this if that wasn't in fact the truth of it. So I look back at any situation in my life, as challenging, as difficult, as heartbreaking as it might've been at the time, as confusing, As terrifying as it might've even been. I look back at those situations and think to myself now that if I'd asked the future, what can I learn? What is the wisdom that the future would've shared with me? It would be that I would grow from that. I would grow in the process. That the future would've said to me that whatever is happening now in the present is net positive. Net positive in your life. Net positive in your business, net positive in every way, shape, and form that you can think of, that it ultimately would prove to be something valuable to you. And whatever it is that you are going through right now, that I am going through, it's the exact same conversation, the exact same wisdom that we can gain if we consult the future. The future will tell us that everything that's happening in the present is net positive. Everything that's happening in the present is going to be something we look back on at some point and see what we've gained, what we've learned, how we've grown. That's what it will tell us. So resilience is not about how do we endure? How do we bounce back? How do we do anything other than utilize what's happening for our forward progress, for our forward momentum? It's about how we bounce forward. In other words, And the way we bounce forward is to recognize how it is that we recover. And I don't mean just taking a vacation because that's easy in some respects and difficult in others because so many people, they want a vacation, they love a vacation, but they dread it because they know that when they come back from that vacation, they've got piles and piles of work waiting for them. Maybe they've fallen behind or they've missed out on things and they have a fear of of missing out or falling behind. And so it creates great stress even in the process of taking time off. Wow. The pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different and something new. But the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And it's the reason why my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilient leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. And so this book will debunk some of those myths, will share the tactical ways that you can recharge mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually even. In the course of an average day, from moment to moment, from minute to minute, and hour to hour, we have the capacity to drive greater resiliency. And by that, I mean that we are able to create rituals for recovery in those 4 important resilient zones: our mental resilience, our emotional resilience, our physical resilience, and yes, even our spiritual resilience. And that ultimately, when we're doing that, when we've created these new rituals for our recovery, that holistically speaking, we are stronger. We have allowed this sort of a miraculous process of slow change to create compound improvement in every area of our lives. Our capacity grows. Our ability to think critically grows. Our ability to think creatively grows. Our ability to respond instead of react to things increases. And every area of our life begins to blossom in ways, in new ways, in different ways, because we have given ourselves this all-important ingredient to our development. And that is this rest. This recovery, this regeneration. You don't water a plant, you don't allow a plant to have sun, it will eventually wilt. And then beyond that, it will die. We know that in nature, that, that is the rule of thumb. And yet we don't water ourselves. We don't give ourselves the kind of sunlight that is absolutely required for us to continue to reach to the light, to reach to our highest heights even. So I'm so thrilled that this book is launching today. I feel like we've got an amazing team behind it. So many people have put their efforts and their resources into seeing that this book reaches an audience of people who are both doing well and those that are not doing as well as they can be. And even those that are struggling, because there are a lot of people right now that are dealing with exhaustion or dealing with anxiety and dealing with just this feeling of constant, never-ending overwhelm. If you're one of those people, this is a book that you're absolutely going to love. I know that it'll be something that we'll have the opportunity to talk about, to engage in conversation about for a long time to come. Because as I know, my own name is Adam and I don't have any hair on the top of my head. I know that this is not the last of the great disruptions that we will face and that resiliency truly is the foundation for how we will deal with things in the future. And if you're a leader, if you're somebody that's running an organization, operating, whether it's your organization or a larger outfit that you're a part of, we have to model these things for the people that are with us. The members of our team have to first see it in us that we care enough about our own wellbeing to take care of ourselves. that they can learn how to take care of themselves. If we model the opposite, if we model the winning the night owl award as the thing that we should all strive for at whatever cost that takes, then what we're doing is we're perpetuating this exhaustion model. And that's in great reason, great part why we're seeing a great resignation right now, because people intuitively know That employers are looking over them, not looking after them. And we have to look after the people around us. People have to know that you've got their back. We often, when we are consulting with organizations and creating continuity programs after a keynote or a workshop that I've delivered, we talk about how it is that we create and perpetuate a got-your-back environment. It's cultural for people to believe, to feel at their core that the people around them have their backs, that the organization itself is fundamentally concerned about their wellbeing, not just about their output. And I think the Great Resignation is a sign that there's a lot less confidence in that concept from an employee standpoint than maybe there has ever been. But no fear there either, because I believe that we are in a great moment of learning. There's great learning that is taking place right now to go along with the Great Resignation. There is a great learning that ultimately we will see a great restoration. And this great restoration, I think, is going to be when this concept, the one that I'm talking about, that the idea that you help to create a change-proof culture In your organization, that you help people to be change-proof. They are able to weather whatever comes their way. They're able to utilize it. They're able to embrace change, embrace the unknown, embrace uncertainty, because they don't simultaneously see it as threatening to their very survival. That when people are coming from a place of greater resiliency, they will be restored. And faith in the organizations, faith in the leadership will be restored. So the great restoration is what I'm planning for, what I believe we'll see soon down the road. But we've got to make a commitment first to these principles, and then we've got to cascade it out. We've got to speak about it redundantly even, so that folks know that it's not just some idea du jour. It's not just ticking off a box to say, hey, yeah, you brought this guy Markel in. to talk about, teach about concepts of resilience and becoming change-proof. It's got to be more than that. There has to be commitment to it long-term, continuity, in other words. I invite you all right now, wherever you are, to just determine for yourself how resilient you are. And we've created a free tool to help you to do this. It's our resilience assessment, the one I referred to earlier that more than 3,000 leaders from all over the globe have taken. You can go to resiliencerank.com, and in the span of 3 minutes, you'll be able to get your score because it's just 16 very simple questions that you can answer in a matter of seconds each. And when you're done, you're not only going to get a score, but you're also going to get a resource kit to help you to make some small changes in the way that you are taking care of your resiliency. mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And it's very helpful. At least that's what we've been told by many, many people. And it's entirely free and there are no strings attached. So resiliencerank.com, simple enough. Take your resilience assessment, get your resilience score, and then take a look at the abundant resources that are going to be provided in this resilience kit that you'll get as well. Again, I am just nothing but optimistic, net positive about the future and about the way that our lives are going to unfold and evolve. And I'm so happy that I get to have this opportunity to speak about this with all of you. And certainly that you're joining this community or a member of this community already. If you know someone that could really benefit from these principles, feel free to refer them to the book Change Proof. You can go to changeproof.com to order your book and get some really wonderful bonuses, some Limited-time bonuses that are there for you at changeproof.com. You can go to adammarkel.com and not only find the book there, but find out more about the kind of work, the services that we provide organizations worldwide, including keynotes and workshops and continuity programs, as I spoke about earlier, the Got Your Back programs that we help organizations create for their workforce over the course of many, many months. I really hope you're enjoying this episode of the Change Proof podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, it's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help you to utilize the book even more effectively to create practices and rituals and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. And I look forward to getting comments as well about the book itself. We're going to be announcing some things. And in fact, one of the bonuses that's part of the book buy right now is a Walk with Adam program. So it's something you'll get as part of that, no additional cost other than the cost of the book itself, where I have recorded a walk where I'm reading the book, but I'm also doing some other things that you won't get in an Audible. It was Tremendous amount of fun for me to do. This is just one of the bonuses, but it's taking me on a walk with you. And I say that because walking is one of the things that I do to restore my energy at various points in the day, to bring myself back to homeostasis, to equilibrium. And it's a vital part of my ritual for recovery in any given moment of the day. And so I wanted to take you all on a walk with me. And so I created this audio that's part of that bonus package. I hope you love that and enjoy it. And if there's somebody again that you think would really benefit from the book or from the podcast, please feel free to share with folks, subscribe, and let other people know. And we'd love to get your review, get your comments. That's just the world to us. Feedback is really oxygen. And again, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be able to share this all with you. I'm looking forward to us all becoming just a little bit more change-proof in the weeks, months, and years ahead. And we'll be back to a regular cadence for our episodes of Change Proof as well. So I look forward to getting your feedback on those episodes and any recommendations that you might have on people that we could include in our interview lineup. All right. Well, again, it's a blessing. Enjoy your reading and here's to becoming change-proof.