Jackie Harder
You’ve heard, no doubt, of the “a-ha” moment, when you hear something that really resonates with you, that makes you stop in your tracks with wonder.
I had its first cousin — a “well, duh!” moment — this weekend while attending the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism at the Fountainbleau Hotel on Miami Beach.
One of the presenters in an industry panel said, “We have to adapt to what’s in front of us.”
Well, duh!
It’s such a simple, basic truth, but I’m continually amazed at the number of people who just flat out don’t get it.
Adaptation is not just a good thing — it’s vital to our survival, as individuals and as business people. But so many people are still dealing with what is behind them or fretting about what’s ahead (or both) that they lose sight of what’s right in front of their faces.
What’s in front of them could be declining revenues or imploding relationships or changing demographics or any number of life’s challenges.
But instead of adapting to those changing conditions, they harp on the real or imagined slights from their past. They nurse grudges based on off-hand remarks that people don’t even remember making. They fret about all the horrible things that could happen sometime in the indeterminate future.
And in the process, they lose the now, what’s right in front of them, and fail to make the most of it.
Take, for example, the man who’s angry because the job he wants requires him to be bilingual…and he isn’t.
He refuses to recognize the fact that Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority in this country. He chooses to be a victim, wants to sue for discrimination.
How much easier his life would be if, instead, he could choose to see this as a golden opportunity to improve his skill set and employability by learning another language.
Not only is he not adapting to what’s in front of him, he’s actively fighting it. Why? What, ultimately, does he gain from the battle? I would guess anger, hostility, an ulcer, an ugly attitude and sleepless nights, to name a few.
He’s certainly not going to get that job he covets.
