Mindset Monday -Adaptability Superpower

This is episode 191 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast, where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider. Welcome. Welcome to Mindset Monday. It's another Monday. Can you even believe it? Our topic today is adaptability, superpower. Did you realize that being adaptable is your most amazing superpower? I think I say most amazing or the best a lot. So we'll use that again today, that this is the most amazing one for this week, for this Monday, for this launch into your week that you're going to create with incredible adaptability. So today, adaptability as your superpower, I'm going to lead in with this quote. It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent. It is the most adaptable. Apparently, Charles Darwin said this. However, it's been reported that that was a misquote of Charles Darwin. So the original one was survival of the fittest. And then apparently he didn't say that. So anyway, regardless of whether he said that or not, it's a fantastic quote because when we really look at it not being the strongest nor the most intelligent, it's the most adaptable. It's those creatures that probably have strength, have fitness, have intelligence, but also have the ability to pivot and change and do something different than the norm or the same pattern. So adaptability is the ability to cope with unexpected disturbances in the environment. Or as a TEDx speaker, Natalie Fratto shares how well a person adapts to the inevitability of change and lots of it. So we're all going to be subject to change. Changes in environment, changes in family, changes in business, changes in all sorts of areas of our life. Change is inevitable. And what we do with that dictates not only our quality of life, not only our happiness, but also the success or the results that we bring to our life. So what is adaptability as your superpower? Can you think of a time in your life where you adapted to something like a problem or a change or something that came your way, that had you or almost forced you to go in a different direction than you thought you were gonna go? There was a time, quite some time ago, probably 18 years ago, I had an old house. And when I purchased that old house, it came with a very, very old washing machine and a very, very old dryer. And my old dryer broke down and I got the old dryer fixed, and then the old washer broke down and I went to get the old washer fixed. But it turns out that the old washer was not worth fixing. It would cost me more to fix it, or what I was going to fix would probably break down again. And so it was better just to buy a new washing machine. So I adapted, and I found a way, and I got the resources. Even though money was tight, I was a single mom. I was running my own business. So I was very, very tightly budgeted in all areas of my life. And I decided I got this new washing machine. And with the new washing machine came delivery. Oh, now, to a single mom who's got a small child with no family that can help in that vicinity, then having delivery was kind of a big deal. I was really happy that I had made that decision. I'd adapted, and now the washing machine was coming. So the washing machine shows up, and two guys are bringing it to my basement. I don't have to lift a finger. I'm so excited about this. They're removing the old washing machine. They're doing all the things, and I don't even think I need to be in the room. I'm doing my own thing. And then they come to tell me that they can't put in the washing machine. And I'm thinking, well, what could possibly be the problem? Why can't they put in the washing machine? Well, it turns out that the washing machine fixture, the plumbing for the washing machine, was locked in the on position. So the open valve of the water was in, open or on, and they couldn't turn it off. There was no closing that valve. They could turn the faucet as much as they wanted to. They couldn't turn the water off. There's the hot water and there's the cold water. And one of them they couldn't turn off, so they couldn't disconnect the washer to put the new washer on. So they were going to leave. Now, for me, as a person in that position, with the budget being on my own, I looked at that and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not going to leave me here with the old washer and not install the new washer. And then what? Then what do I have to figure out? Or get a plumber. They're like, oh, yeah, you'll have to get a plumber. Plumber in. Get a plumber in. Do this. And then maybe we'll. Then, then you can have them hook it up. Or, you know, maybe we'll come back and take this old washer away. And my first Thought, and this was the most powerful one in this scenario was there has to be another way. You can't tell me that we, we can't do this. There has to be another way. And they're like, no, see? And then they came and they showed me, they showed me what the problem was. And I could see it. As soon as they would try and disconnect that hose, it was going to spray and flood water everywhere. So I understood the problem. And then the second thought I had was, if there has to be another way, then my next thought was, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Now, where that saying came from, I have no idea. But somewhere in my history with one of my great grandparents or uncles, somebody said that at some point. And it came up at that moment, there's more than one way to skin a cat. So what else could happen? I said, so you need the water off in order to unhook this and hook up the new washing machine? And they said, yes, and we can't turn the water off. I said, well, there has to be another way to turn the water off. I said, I'm pretty sure I've gotten to know this house and there's a main water valve. Can we turn the main water off and you can bleed out this line. And they stopped and they thought, and they said, yeah, yeah, I think we can. And that's what they did. And so that day, simply because I adapted to a couple of things, I got the result that I wanted. I wasn't gonna get the result I wanted, which is clean clothes. I wasn't gonna get that result at all. If I kept trying to use the old washing machine, if I didn't adapt to the situation of it not being fixed effectively, and if we didn't find a new solution to the plumbing issue along the way, it took a different way of thinking. So with adaptability as a superpower, it's not just a pivot like you think in sport, just turning a different direction, just turning a different direction. It's also using your brain differently. So the pivot that happens is in how you think about the problem, especially with the questions that you ask. So another scenario of this, I had athletes at the highest level in sport coming to my business, my facility. And the problem was, and this is the problem that caused me to become adaptable and caused our way of thinking around our business to become adaptable, was that these higher performing athletes, they might be on the cusp of making a national team, they might have even been a national player. Of some sort. But they have very, very little funding for the fundamentals that they needed, which was their strength and conditioning. And we had a business to run, so that required that we actually charge money per hour for the service that we provided. But they couldn't pay the money that we were charging per hour and their sport body or wherever they worked for, unless they were a highly paid professional athlete, which that was only the hockey players. If they weren't that, then they didn't have the money to put towards the strength and conditioning. And yet it was a much needed foundational requirement in their, in their success, in their recipe for success. So what we did is we went away from the normal way we did things. We had a system. We had a system of how we booked clients, we had a system of what we charged clients. We, we had a system of what hours we booked. Everything was systematized so that we could actually make the numbers work and keep the doors open of the business. And that system was working well in a number of areas. However, in this one area, the one area that we were most passionate about helping these athletes get to their next level, we're so passionate about this transformation that they were going through in order to whatever make the university team, make the national team get to the Olympics, whatever that big goal was, we were so lit up by it, and yet we weren't going to be able to serve them. And I was making the mistake of serving them anyway on my free time. And I could easily see that with a big why, like my family and like my mission, those big why's, I could easily see how it wasn't sustainable to keep giving my time in a way that that was just going to burn me out, but also was going to be very limited by the number of hours in the day. And so it caused me to think differently about the problem. Well, what could happen? What if we did the same hour and we put a number of people together? What if. And that was unheard of in high performance sport. People in their sport stuck with their sport and their way of doing things. But finally that's the solution that we came to. We took the diver and the hockey player who was pro, and the national team, women's hockey player, and the rugby player and the soccer player. And we put them all in a group together and we made a training group out of that group. And yes, they had their own individual training for what they needed for their sports. But in time factor and a human resource factor, we put them together and it allowed us to scale something and Allowed them to pay a price that they could afford and us to keep our doors open because we could actually have that hour instead of have it spread over six hours for six different people. And that way of adapting caused us to stretch. But there's so much more that came from it. What we didn't realize, what we didn't see was coming, was that by putting those people together, they had so much more out of that experience. They learned from each other, even though there were different sports. They motivated each other, even though they had different abilities. It was such a cool experience. And it all came from adapting away from the rigidity of a system that already worked. The system was working. It just wasn't going to work in that situation. And that's how we stepped into adapting. So another way of looking at adaptability is the ability to read and act on signals of change. And what I just described to you in those two stories are the signals of change, the ability to experiment rapidly, frequently. So if we look at business, it's exactly this. If we look at. There was a quote that I found in the Harvard Business Review, and it was this. The ability to experiment rapidly and frequently, not only with products and services, but also with business systems. And that's exactly what we did in that last example. So I'm going to propose three ways to practice your adaptability superpower. How can you practice this? It really happens when a problem that seems like it can't be solved is presented to you and you really want to go in a certain direction. But this problem or this obstacle or this challenge is in the way. That's where adaptability really comes in. So to practice this adaptability, superpower number one, use your imagination. The imagination is such a powerful tool, and yet we seem to think that it's just reserved for childhood or play or having some fun. And imagination is fun. It can be amazingly fun. However, it's this other skill, this other tool that we can tap into in order to create scenarios that don't exist and solve them. And that solving doesn't even exist. None of it exists. But we can imagine it out. We can forecast it. We can future think. That's part of our superpower of being a human, is being able to future think. So in this, number one, practice using your imagination, you would quite literally create scenarios that don't exist and solve them. And the way that you can do that to prompt your brain to go through it are the what if questions. So in the case of the washing machine, a what if question was, what if? I don't have a washing machine. What does that look like? And that scenario I did not like at all. Having a young child, having all kinds of laundry from workouts and work, and having a time limit because of the way I structured my life between my training, my competing, my business, my child, all the priorities that were all in my life. The scenario of having to take my clothes and my sheets and my towels and all the things to the laundromat was not one that I was willing to entertain. But imagining that caused enough of a pain point that I was willing to take action on getting that washing machine fixed as soon as possible. I could live without a dryer. I did for a week or two or three. That was no problem. But living without the washing machine wasn't an option. So using the imagination and using the what if questions, well, what if I didn't have the washing machine? Well, what if I could just get this fixed? Who would I call? And then when we had the problem of the plumbing, well, what if there's a different solution? What if there's a different way to deal with this? Instead of getting a plumber and waiting more days and all of those things, what if questions will cause you to step into that imaginative process and find solutions and results that you can just create in your mind. They don't even exist. Create the scenarios and solve them and see which one really fits. See which pain points really motivate you to take the action. Number two is to stay curious. Stay curious. Notice that in the scenario of the washing machine, had I taken them, just taken their word at, okay, this is the only option and this is what's happened, I. I never would have been able to think of some other solution. But the curiosity of, oh, well, what do you mean, oh, why can't this be hooked up? You say it can't be hooked up and we can't install this washing machine and you can't take away the other one. I don't understand why. Why can't that happen? Stay curious about all situations. So staying curious prompts why questions and the why questions were exactly what motivated me to keep going when it came to putting our athletes in one group. My why was all about providing for my family. My why was all about supporting and serving the people that we were causing, creating, or the catalyst for transformation in their lives. My why allowed me to ask what else needed to be? What else needed to happen? So staying curious and why questions are number two, and that's another way to keep you adapting instead of staying static. And number three, are to look for the areas of rigidity and explore what you want as exceptions. When we often create a system, like I noted in the athlete example in the gym, when that system works, that's good, we typically want to stick with it. We don't want to recreate the wheel. We want to find what works and go with it. It is one of the primary reasons we are so successful as humans, because once we find something that works, it can be utilized and utilized really well. And our system in the gym had really worked. However, look for those areas of rigidity and ask what would the exception be? And that's an important part of adaptability, because rigidity thwarts the imagination, rigidity stops adaptability. Rigidity is something that has us really being inflexible. And when we can't be flexible and it's really hard to pivot and it's really hard to adapt. And no matter how good a system is, no matter how incredible, how incredibly it's produced results in the past, or it works so well, there will be something that will break that system at some point or another. It could be the weather, it could be Covid, it could be some new problem coming into the world. Whatever it is, be prepared to question any rigid system that you have in place. A personal example of that is for myself. When I grew up, I ate almost every single meal in front of a television at my dad's house or at my mom's house. So when it was time to eat dinner, we grabbed some food from the kitchen. It might have been something from the freezer, like a frozen dinner. It could have been craft dinner. It might have been a home cooked meal that my dad made. And then we brought it to the TV in front of the TV and we ate with our plates on our laps. That was how I had 99% of my meals growing up. And then I noticed just how magical it felt every time there would be a sit down at the table meal with family. And the reason it happened with family is because the only times those dinners happened were around Thanksgiving or Christmas or some special occasion where guests were coming over and we sat down at the table. And so there was magic around sitting down at the table together. Because as a kid, when I was alone with my dad or I was alone with my mom at the two different houses, it would be quiet and we would just be sitting there watching tv. They didn't talk to me and we didn't engage in any way once the meal was ready or we were moving in front of the television. That's where we went. And so for my experience of life, sitting at a table was magical because people would be around, it would usually be a different meal or something special, and there would be all these people to talk to or to watch or to engage with in different ways. So in creating the life for my family, we almost always there was this level of rigidity around sitting down at the table to have a meal. And with a blended family of seven of us, we were usually sitting down with a minimum of three people, with a maximum of seven or nine people. So a table really made sense versus sitting in front of the tv. However, that wasn't the point. The point of the table was so we could all engage, so we could all interact. We could really make the meal time a connection time before they went off to their sports and did all their other things. But what I noticed in this practice is that I was so rigid about always eating at the table that there were never really these notable fun times where we'd get, you know, lay on the living room floor in front of the TV eating some special meal because it was a special movie night. And so to my kids, surprise, every now and then I would say, yeah, let's just have this meal in front of the TV while doing this other thing. Now, to them, it's so special, but to me, it was me breaking that rigid system that I'd created in order to explore where I want to have the exceptions to this rule, where I want to be able to adapt. And so for this one, it's going to be, when would we make this shift? These are the types of questions. When would the exception be to this rule? When would the exception be to this system or this regular behavior? And that is, number three is finding the areas of rigidity and exploring what the exceptions can be. That will be part of your practice of being adaptable. So to wrap this up, remember that adaptability as a superpower is really something that can be practiced. And that's why we've outlined the use the imagination, create the scenarios that don't exist and solve them. Use the what if questions. Staying curious, using the why questions, finding the areas of rigidity and exploring what the experience exceptions. What exceptions do you want to make? Not only is that some level of planning, but it's planning how to be adaptable, being ready to be adaptable for when the time comes. Being aware that being adaptable is an option, being aware that you can create so many other options. If you think there are only two options, think again. There's not three. There's not four. There's probably a hundred or a hundred thousand, depending on the scenario. There are so many options, and when we embrace that, we embrace adaptability. And to go back to the original quote, it's not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent. It is the most adaptable. And we're not looking just to survive. We're looking to adapt, to create the best life. Our best life. No one can create that but you. So keep going in creating your best life and using your superpower of adaptability. Kick off your week powerfully with this little superpower. Go into the rest of your week with all that you need to get all that you want and all the results for your life. Have a beautiful week, everyone. So much love to you and keep it going. If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team Podcast, you'll love being on the Empowered Team. The Empowered Team runs year round. It is our group coaching and accountability program where we take mindset and physical performance concepts and break them down to usable action steps that optimize results. To learn more about our Empowered Leadership coaching for business, our custom online physical training plans, and of course, the Empowered Team Group coaching, head to www.theempowered.ca empowered learn more. That's www.theempowered.caempowered-learn more.