Adaptability: A Lifelong Skill

Turning What You Love into What You Do
By Patrick J. O’Connor

Two years of Boomer blog segments in “How to Turn What  You Love into What You Do ”showed how Road Less Traveled (RLT) themes and characteristics relate to navigating the workforce. As the segments unfolded, it appeared these themes and characteristics are also applicable to navigating life itself. This segment begins a series of how these themes and qualities apply. Let’s begin with adaptability, especially as it relates to Boomers.

Prediction Culture
It seems years ago that life, like the workplace, was a constant. Very little changed. We were able to get into patterns and repeat them. Though a little boring, life was predictable. There is something safe and secure about predictability. People like to know what is going to happen and predict outcomes. This is part of our prediction culture. As a society, we are constantly trying to predict outcomes, from sporting events to the weather to political campaign results. The massive role of gambling in our society is a good indication of prediction culture.

A prediction culture has been our norm. We repeat the same activities over and over, as it makes life easier. The more we do something, the better we get at it. Patterns and routines lead to certainty which is predictable. It puts people in a comfort zone.

Constant change = adaptation paradigm
A paradigm, simply put, is  way of thinking that frames how we do something. A paradigm change means we must  think in a different way to adapt to change. A new paradigm is a way of thinking and doing something different from the way it has always been done. 

A good example is how communication has moved from a print to a digital format. When was the last time we used a phone book to look up a phone number? Now, we find the number on a phone, tap the number to connect, save it if we wish or even add it to our favorites. As a result, phone books are basically obsolete.

Our life paradigm is changing from certainty to uncertainty, from having answers to asking questions and from knowing to learning. Perhaps this is the “new normal” we hear so much about.

“Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it.” John Maxwell

Constant Uncertainty
It seems life was a series of major events that required people to adapt. Some changes are expected while others are totally unexpected. Marriage, birth of children, job changes, death and graduations are good examples of expected events. These events happen to us, and we work through them so life can get “back to normal.” We must now also constantly adapt to unexpected changes in society and technology that reshape our lives. All aspects of our lives — from watching television to finding information to banking — are constantly changing. Life is now one long continuous series of changes…. many unexpected.

There are numerous areas in life that require constant adaptability. Many of these are interrelated. Three sample areas are examined as they relate to the Boomer generation, sort of “Boomer adaptability.” The three examined here are technology, social and mobility.

Technology – the myriad of technological changes are requiring us to constantly learn and adapt to new ways of doing routine activities. 

One classic example is the cell phone and all the products and processes it has replaced. The phone book, atlas, maps, mail, balancing the checkbook, flashlight, messages, notes, camera, video recorder, alarm clock, radio and YouTube fix-it videos are a few. We use a remote to start our cars and can video monitor our homes in our absence. It seems we are constantly learning new apps to replace activities we once did manually.  

Social/family – During the recent pandemic, many people started video calls (George Jetson?) to stay in touch. Some had video happy hours; even weddings and funerals are now streamed. Many family events such as grandchildren’s birthdays are now shared through video streaming. The boundaries of time and distance are almost irrelevant now. 

Much of our changing world is captured on home computers or tablets. For example, how many pages of passwords and secret questions do you have? How often do you modify and add to them? Everything now requires an account, user ID, password and security questions.

Mobility – Most retirees relocate to be closer to their children/grandchildren or a place they have always wanted to live, such as the beach or mountains. Most of their lives they were tied to a particular place because of work and family commitments. Now, they can go wherever they want. However, this will require change and adapting to a new environment, living conditions, location and maybe even culture. America is an amazing place but, in some respects, a new location might feel like a different country.

The New Comfort Zone
These and other ways of adapting enable people to create a new comfort zone. What was unthinkable just a few years ago has become the norm.  Adaptability is the vehicle that facilitates this change.

Adapting is very much about the relationship to lifelong learning and problem solving. The extent to which we can adapt depends on our ability to learn and solve problems. One good example is a local library that offered a community education course titled, “Watching Television.” 

“Feed me a fish and I eat for today. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime” -Confucius

The next blog segment will address how a love of the arts is interwoven in daily life.