Adaptability and Change

A question I’ve asked myself recently and something we discussed on the podcast this week is am I adaptable? Am I good with change?

I like to think I am, I know from experience I can adapt fairly quickly to a new situation or environment. When questioned why that is, I think it’s because I like to fully absorb what’s around me and I purposely seek out differences wherever I am.

In the book Livewired, David Eagleman talks about how our brain actively recalibrates, we do this by continually trying to build an internal model of our outside world, which then helps our brain conserve energy. For example, in our home we may not pay attention to our environment because we already have a good sense of it. In comparison, in a foreign country, when we’re trying to find our way around, it’s unfamiliar, so we pay attention to everything - the sounds, smells, sights, so we can build this new environment into our internal model and update it.

I’ve noticed I do this automatically, everyday. I do a similar dog walk or run near my home, however each time I take in and notice different things. I do this as I like to be creative and take photos to capture that moment.

Noticing new things in a familiar environment may be a useful way to help improve our attention, focus and recalibrate our brain. This can help us to get better at adapting to new situations and in the long run we become better with the bigger, more important changes as and when they come up.

I am most certainly a work in progress but I thought I’d share what I do to improve my adaptability and I’m hoping this will help me as we head into this new, post lockdown life.