Agent of change

I often joke that my super-power is adaptability. I never realized how valuable this trait was until I read Deviate: The science of seeing differently, by Beau Lotto.

He reinforces much of my knowledge of philosophy (which isn’t nearly as vast as my hub’s) and theory of evolution, through neuroscience. There’s a whole lot to unpack in this book, but one of the messages that struck me was “survival of the fittest” is not nearly as accurate as “survival of the adaptable.”

We see this illustrated in the animal kingdom. Why is a giraffe’s neck so long? Back in the days of yore, the giraffes with the longest necks had access to more food than their shorter-necked counter parts. They would go on to live longer, and breed more longer-necked giraffes.

Of course giraffes aren’t humans. We are much more complex than that, but our brains and thought patterns develop in a similar way – and we don’t have to wait generations. We can essentially evolve (or enhance our ability to adapt), he argues, in our own lifetime simply by exposing ourselves to new things.

I can think of dozens of times that I’ve switched gears, taken on a new hobby or just grabbed a book on an oddball subject. My parents were teachers and if they did nothing else, they instilled in me a natural curiosity. My mom said knowledge never goes to waste. I had to constantly remind myself of that in algebra class.

I never thought much of this when I was younger. In fact, I felt it was a curse. I envied people who could be so focused that they could master something. I was a jack-of-all-trades kind of gal, and drove my parents nuts as I hopped from major to major – to the point where they stopped paying for school. I forged ahead and found a way to pay my tuition through grants and scholarships. Keep in mind this was pre-internet days. All research and application submissions were done via the “old-fashioned” way. This may have been one of the first times I notably adapted to a situation.

As my life and career went on, I embraced change. If there is a roadblock, I view it as a challenge that will better myself (and ideally) the world around me. If it’s a new process, even if it doesn’t make 100% sense, I dive in. I found that sometime change doesn’t make sense until you see it at work. I’d see other coworkers get frustrated and not give it a chance. Some even spend energy trying to sabotage it. I never understood that because even if there is a change I 100% disliked, that change will change too! Wait it out, and figure out a way to improve the situation in the meantime. A solution to your predicament will often appear more easily when you aren’t spending brainpower looking for ways to avoid it.