Once again, we’re back to the time of year when people make plans and set goals of what they want to accomplish in this fresh start the calendar gives us. It’s no secret, though, that those objectives fall to the wayside all too often once an obstacle comes our way, usually in the form of temptation or dwindling motivation.
As I’ve shared before, I’m a Type A planner, and a lot of times, unexpected impediments to my agenda can rattle me. Though my Cerebral Palsy doesn’t allow me to work, I have a general schedule for my day, but in the past few years, I’ve endeavored to be a bit more yielding when other pursuits arise and sidetrack my original plans. Let’s face it: Covid forced us all to pivot.
On the other hand, my disability has also necessitated me and my family to adapt in numerous aspects of life. During my childhood, we discussed “adaptive” this and “adaptive” that with regard to instruments and activities designed to help me keep up with my able-bodied peers. Those adaptive tools typically costed more money, but it always excited me when we could get our hands on one or convince a teacher to implement such practices in their class for me. In many cases, my limitations still hindered me from being able to use them as intended, but I continued to be open-minded about moving on to try something different.
Open-mindedness plays a big part in adaptability. I’ve found that that’s a quality we lose as we grow older. Sure, we whined on occasion as kids when our parents asked us to try something new, but for the most part, new experiences excited us. We wanted to test ourselves and the world around us, and in certain instances, we craved a redo if circumstances didn’t play out like we hoped so that we could adapt to fit the challenge.
Of course, those experiences build up our reserve of knowledge and later dictate how willing we are to repeat them. However, it’s too easy to allow that to make us less tolerant to give anything new a chance, lest it doesn’t go well. We might spend more time and energy convincing ourselves how bad things could turn out than we would by just jumping in and adapting to any setbacks we encounter.
Thus, we ought to avoid deeming it a failure when we don’t execute our goals precisely as we planned. Instead, we should focus on our purpose behind the plan and make the needed adjustments to achieve that purpose. We seldom meet up with an objective in which we can only accomplish it through one means. We usually just have to strategize a little more.
Whether we undertake such initiatives by choice or not, changes are bound to happen sooner or later, so we’ll be better prepared if we get into the habit of adapting when the changes are on our terms. At rough points that come along, reflecting on how we’ve benefitted from adapting to things in the past can help us summon the fortitude we need to do so again. We may need to channel our inner child to see past perceived obstacles and cultivate optimism.
KarinaBartow.com 
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