Adaptation is something intrinsic that happens all the time.    It generally refers to changes that organisms have to make to face their local circumstances in some way better. I have done quite a bit of adapting, but I never thought about it until I read a book not long ago.  I realize that being able to adapt to circumstances and changes in our lives is something we have been doing for a long time, successfully.

1- We are good at adaptation

The book I read is about running, in fact, I have read it a couple of times; "Born to Run" by Chris MacDougall.  He also has a fascinating TED talk about the book, and this is one of those books that have inspired thousands of people to take on running once again.   In his book and his TED talk, he claims that we are what we are because of our ability to run.  We adapted to our environment with the only superpower we had, running.   No other animal in the face of the earth can run as efficiently as we do.   The majority are much faster than we are,  but regarding endurance and distance, humans are kings.  This superpower is the adaptation we developed that allowed us to thrive.  In the distant past, we ran animals down, literally.   (See video on persistence running here)

The ability to run is an example of adaptation that happened over thousands of years. Humans realized that running was the only superpower they had and they used it quite well, in the process we grew a bigger brain and evolved to be who we are today.  We learned to run animals to death and to kill them without any weapons adapting to our environment and needs, evolving to become who we are today.

2- Adaptation is a choice we regularly make

Take weather, for instance,  when you travel from, say Houston to Alaska, a sudden change in weather occurs and we must adapt to the new environment.  Most likely we will pack some sweaters and warms clothes to survive our new surroundings.   Most of us do this without thinking and in response to a basic need to cover ourselves and not to be cold.

3- Being positive increases resilience and our ability to adapt

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Another type of adaptation we undergo is a type best place to buy cialis online which requires a little more thinking and a mindset especially in the face of a personal tragedy.   In my previous life, I was an aspiring university professor, and then a sudden change altered that dream; I was diagnosed with a Brain Tumor.  I was forced to adapt to my new reality, the reality that I couldn’t do the job I loved and was trained to do.   Happy to report that I adapted and reinvented myself to become what I am today, an executive coach, an authority on employee engagement and an endurance athlete.

I consider myself the charles-darwin-quotemost positive person in the world, and I believe that being positive in the face of tragedy has helped me to cope and adapt.  Being able to adapt starts with knowing that you can handle anything. Interestingly, I use running as my safe place, when I run I think of the solutions and changes I should make, including ones that will allow me to adapt.  Running reduces my stress and increases my positive emotions which allow me to look for solutions to my situation, to adjust.

Interestingly,  there are a few peer-reviewed journals that attest to this experiential finding of mine.  One, in particular, shows three important findings of the correlation between being positive, resilient and the ability to adapt to stressful situations.

A) The occurrence of daily positive emotions is key in reducing stress.

B)  Positive emotions lead to higher levels of resilience.

C) Over time, the experience of positive emotions functions to assist high-resilient individuals to cope with stressful situations, to adapt better.

4- Adaptation is a choice

Yet adaptation and change in the face of tragedy or sudden change is the one we have the hardest time to deal with.    You probably know someone that lost a job, had an accident, got thru a major life change event and they become angry, depressed and unable to make the changes they need to do to adapt to their new reality.  They look for someone to blame rather than looking for something that can help them adapt and thrive.

We have but one choice when dealing with change, even a tragic one - undergo adaptation.   It all starts with a positive mindset, understanding your new reality,  knowing that you can handle anything, adjust to the change and move forward.

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