Be Like Neo
Not Gumby
by Julia Freeland
Thriving today takes more than being resilient. It requires shifting how you engage.
Life today may have you feeling a little twisted, pulled and uncomfortable. Since you have been at in this shape for a while now, what approach are you using to handle it?
Are you relying on your resiliency to get you through?
Or, perhaps, have you taken some training on how to become more resilient?
It seems as though "being resilient" has become the gold standard for handling our disrupted world.
But it's making things worse, not better.
Yes, resilience has its place and value.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, to be resilient means to be “able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions, able to recoil or bounce back to shape after bending.”
It means you are like Gumby. You can withstand pulling, poking, twisting, and bending and eventually return to your normal shape.
While being able to recover after facing a difficult situation is certainly desirable, the idea of withstanding a change in your environment and bouncing ‘back to shape’ sound an awful lot like resisting change and working to return to status quo rather than adapt to fit the world we are living in.
Frankly, this is something we have all grown used to.
We have used technology and innovations to adapt to changes in our environment for generations, so we don’t have to put in the effort of changing ourselves.
But now, our innovations and impact on the world has caused our environment to change so dramatically, that efforts to return to what was status quo are foolish and dangerous.
Resilience isn’t enough – to thrive in the world we live in today, you must adapt.
Resilience will only get you so far.
It will help you maintain your strength and determination to overcome challenges, but it won’t help you open up your mind to new ideas, nor prepare you for the inevitable need to let go of what you have always known. In fact, at some point, when you are facing a radical shift in the environment in which you live, being resilient will actually prolong your frustration AND potentially trap you in a disappointing limbo state.
The rules of the game of life are changing – largely because of the impact of our own efforts to innovate.
We are at a tipping point. The world is evolving, driven by our own actions. It is time for humans to evolve too.
Rather than be like Gumby, we need to shoot for being like Neo.
Do I think we need to learn to stop bullets with our mind? No (But that would be cool.)
We need to be like Neo in realizing that it’s time to stop striving to return to normal – or what used to be status quo - and start striving for a new version of ourselves - one that is better suited for the environment in which we live.
Stop being resilient.
Adapt. Be versatile. Engage in change.
Want to know how people can thrive in change?