Episode summary introduction:

Join TC & Maddog as they hone in on the importance of the ability to adapt to change, which is essential for achieving greater happiness and success in life. 

Throughout our dialogue, we explore the inherent challenges individuals face when confronted with change, emphasizing that while change is often unwelcome, it is an inevitable aspect of our existence. 

We bring this to life as we share personal anecdotes illustrating the necessity of adaptability in various life scenarios, particularly in professional environments where the landscape is constantly evolving. 

Our conversation also touches upon the concept that comfort with discomfort can facilitate growth and resilience, thereby enhancing one's capacity to navigate new and challenging situations. We invite our listeners to engage in this journey of understanding how embracing change can ultimately lead to a more fulfilling and successful life.

Topics discussed in this episode:

The podcast engages listeners in a reflective discourse on the dynamics of change and the innate human capacity to adapt. 

Maddog & TC accept that while change can induce apprehension, it also presents invaluable opportunities for growth and self-discovery. They recount personal stories that illustrate the transformative power of embracing change, reinforcing the idea that adaptability can lead to enriched life experiences. Their conversation further emphasizes that the ability to adapt extends beyond mere survival; it encompasses building resilience and fostering connections with others. We challenge you to reconsider your relationship with change, advocating for a mindset that views adaptability as an essential life skill rather than an obstacle. 

In closing, they inspire listeners to embrace change as a pathway to fulfillment and personal development, reminding them that the journey of adaptation is a collective endeavor, often shared with others.

Walkabout takeaways:

• The principle of adaptation serves as a cornerstone for achieving both personal happiness and professional success in an ever-changing world.
• Embracing change is essential as it fosters resilience and allows individuals to thrive in unfamiliar environments.
• The journey of life is shared among individuals, emphasizing the importance of companionship and mutual support during transitions.
• Asking questions can significantly enhance one’s ability to adapt to new situations and mitigate feelings of discomfort.
• Resilience and adaptability are intertwined, as the former provides the strength needed to confront and embrace inevitable changes.
• Comfort can often be found beyond one's familiar surroundings, suggesting that personal growth lies in embracing the unknown.

More about E-Walkabout:

To learn more about Electronic Walkabout visit us at   www.ewalkabout.ca.

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“St. Mike's Fortunes”

A special thanks to Steven Kelly, our technical advisor, who keeps trying to teach these old dogs new tricks when it comes to sounds and recording!!

“Remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you!”

Electronic Walkabout. No one should have to walk through life alone. We share the good times, the bad times, and the best times.

Everyone needs a little direction now and again. And TC and Mad Dog are here to show you the way. A podcast where we talk about the important things in life. Come journey with us.

The Electronic Walkabout. Good afternoon, Maddog. Here we are in the studio today with a beautiful sunny day in the valley. And how are you this most awesome sunny day?

It's hard to be anything other than that when you live in a beautiful place and the sun's out and. But I'm doing well. Thank you, sir.

You know, you know, it's funny. And how many times have you been downtown Vancouver when it's pouring rain?

Should I be honest?

Be totally honest.

I try and stay downtown Vancouver as much as humanly possible. It's not my jam. It just. It's not a thing. I've maybe been downtown for work a dozen times in my 15 years in B.C. and that's it.

I. You got to get out more.

I do get out. Just.

I don't go there, but I'm telling you. Okay, so the reason why I asked that question is simply this. Okay, so. So we all know we live in a rainforest.

Yes.

And it rains quite a bit.

Yes.

But every once in a while, and we've been quite lucky in the last little bit. The sun comes out. Now, Vancouver, when it's raining, it's dark gray, miserable. But when the sun is shining, it is a beautiful city.

Yeah, you can't, you know, you see some of the flyovers on. On clear days and just, you know, people slowly get what sea to sky means. And yeah, it is truly a very unique place in the world.

So come visit us.

Yes.

Well, not, you know, not you go.

To Vancouver, downtown Vancouver.

Well, today we're going to focus on the importance with respect to the ability to adapt. Now what this really means is the art of embracing change. Safe to say no one really likes change, but it's a constant in our life.

If we master this, it would not only make our lives happier, but give us an ability to become more successful.

Interesting.

Are you ready for this?

I am now. I'm almost thinking, are those people that aren't big fans of change, is that a bad thing? If they're comfortable with how they are? I don't know.

Well, you know, you know, I thought about that. Well, let's talk more about that because really. And I'll share some.

Some stories and personal stories, too, where I had no choice as far as my environment changing, so I had to adapt. And it seems that there's some positive things that come out of that ability to adapt.

But if you're quite happy in your world and say, I don't want to change or, or I don't want to go to Vancouver, who am I to judge you?

Yeah. Is that bad? Because that's mine. That's my preference, not somebody else's.

This is the first time you've been a contrary and I love it. I loved it. But first, as always, a thought for today. Imparting new ideas rests on really knowing your audience.

If you know what lights their fire, the rest is a piece of cake. Just remember to let them eat it too.

Never liked a beast cake I didn't like. So.

Now, just to let you know, in researching topics for our podcast, we want to share with the listeners information and thoughts you will find interesting. Fair enough.

Fair.

I think we kind of hit that mark, don't you?

Yeah, I think so.

The ability to adapt hit the top 10 lists on what people need to do to basically have a happier, more successful lives. When I was doing the research where there's, I was looking, okay, well, what can we share that's going to help people out there?

But when I, when I, when I think about it, how many people do you think actually have this ability to adapt to new environments in a, let's say, in a pretty quick way kind of thing?

I, I don't know, I think there's maybe a lot of that would. But there's also a lot of factors that might not allow change. Your financial structure, how your job is, your reliance on family for whatever reason.

Sometimes you can't make big changes.

Okay. And again, you already kind of mentioned the fact maybe they don't have the desire to do that as well. You're always traveling.

Yes.

Okay. Your ability to adapt pretty, Pretty important.

I would think so, yes.

Okay, so what's, what's your biggest challenge when you kind of line out of this guy?

Let's say you're meeting a group of new people or you're in, you're in a new office building and yet you're the guy, you're the go to guy and you don't know anybody.

Yeah, I'm okay with adapting to people I don't know, but I choose to do a great deal of research before anything so that I understand kind of what I'm getting into. But I go to Montreal a fair amount and I get off the plane and you're smacked in the Face with French speaking Canadians.

Some of them don't want to speak English and it's daunting. But I'm the one that like I'm going into their area. I can't say you should be talking English to me. That's not it.

But I have to be able to adapt to the environment that I'm going into. So if I don't, it's probably going to be an interesting and challenging trip for me.

But yeah, if certain industries, if you're not adaptable to change, like from a work standpoint, you will get left behind. There's just no offends or buts.

And I will say the same thing about policing. I don't know how many times that I would land in, in one detachment or the to help out with an investigation.

I not only had to get to know the community right away, I had to get to know the, the other investigators. Right. I never worked with them a day in my life. And yet we had to be a cohesive team and move forward with things.

Not to mention the fact that getting to know the people that, that are, let's out say, subject to the investigations and don't waste any time doing that.

No. And if you're a beat cop, I imagine you're rarely going to go to the same type of situation twice in a day. Maybe.

So essentially every call that you get, you have to change based on that call.

Yeah, it's a new environment. You have to adapt. You have to adapt to survive. That's probably the best way to put it too.

And that has a little more literal meaning in that line of work.

Yeah, of course, for sure. And I'm just going to throw it out there, but what do you think people are usually feeling when they're in that new environment?

And the reason why I'm asking this is that, okay, if you have an ability to adapt, adapt. If you can somehow mitigate those feelings, that might help you adapt in an environment.

So if you're in a brand new place and you're feeling, I'll say, disoriented, what are the things that are going.

Through your head, how uncomfortable you are and that's I think, part of the apprehension of people wanting to change because you know, you live in what you know and you're comfortable and everything's great and your day to day goes the way that you want it. But if you really wanted to make a change, you have to step out of that comfort zone and adapt to something new.

And that's not always the easiest thing to do. But to your point, and then you're in this situation, you're probably freaking out a little bit.

You, you feel uneducated because it's a new situation. But there's a lot of different skills that I think you need to have in order to be able to embrace change.

Absolutely. And I think one of the biggest things that I've learned, you really have to be patient with yourself.

I worked in, I'll say, two different provinces and a territory. And to go to that first province, it was like a new world to me anyhow, because it was basically the beginning of a new career.

So it took me a while to adapt to it, adapt to that culture, learn what the expectations are. And then when I went to. From one province to a territory, even though, let's say I was playing for the same team, it wasn't the same. Playing rules.

No, different game.

Different game, yeah.

Now, did you come across people in your line of work that were.

Even though there's an understanding that there's a great amount of change that were resistant to it, and I'm imagining their shelf life wasn't that long?

Oh, yeah. There's always, always people like that.

And I know that when I went to one place, like, literally the way that we were doing business was changing on a, on a weekly basis just because.

And I thought, crazy me, I thought, okay, so I'm going to a place where we've got people from all over the country, so it's gotta be the best of the best because everybody would bring these ideas and you'd have some fantastic ways of doing business. It was just the opposite. It was just the opposite. So I just said to myself, I'm just gonna stick with what I know to help me survive for sure.

Wow.

To have that assumption that, yeah, you're going into this melting pot of great ideas and then it's like, nope, everybody's just acting on their own here and they're all doing different things. Yeah. But you have to adapt to that.

Yeah. And you have to adapt to that as well.

And, and, and, and again, when, when I say that you, you, you want to share what it, whatever you, Whatever's working with, with other people to make it easy for them to adopt as well.

Sharing best practices.

Sharing best practices. Well, what a concept.

Right?

So, so if you're in this new environment and you're having all these feelings going through your head, and if you're not comfortable by any means now, what's the best way to deal with that?

Personally, I, I'm, I Ask lots of questions. So I would probably just write down as many questions as I had to provide clarity because, you know, there's.

When we talk about adapting to change, you have to understand what it is that you're getting into that requires the change. So I think the more clarity you can get from, you know, the situation, it will help you get acclimatized to it.

So I'm, I've just, I'm a big, I'm pretty inquisitive, so I always ask lots of questions to ensure I know what's going on.

Well, I think, I think that's, that's great advice. The other thing I would think about, who, who am I sizing up as to the, the, the person that I want to go to?

That's, that's going to be, let's say in the know that that's, that's going to help me adopt in a, in a quick way. And now let's say if it's, it's a new job and it might take a little time, that's, that's a little bit, that's a little bit easier to manage.

But literally, if I got an hour, who to go and talk to to make this work and quick.

Yeah, you gotta find those that are successful in that, you know, stage, if you will, and just learn from them. And you know what, I think it's even fair to say, like I watched my son go through in university.

He, he was in his last year of, of high school and he thought he was king pooba.

And then he went to the big leagues and he got humbled real quick and then he just had to be quiet and learn because it was a massive change to adapt to going from high school to university. So, yeah, sometimes you're just thrown into it and you just have to figure.

It out and you know, it's like a sink or swim feeling. And most of the time, and again, speaking from experiences that somehow we feel we're alone, but we're never really alone in those situations.

There's always someone there to, to help us in our ability to adapt in that specific environment.

Yeah, I give people kudos for that, you know, make big changes. And you know, I have another son that was in construction for the longest time and he just, you could see it just wasn't checking his boxes.

He's like, I'm not getting anything out of this. I'm fixing everybody else's mistakes. So he felt it was time for a change. So he went to be an electrician and he is just Thriving. And he's loving it.

It's a new challenge. He's got to think differently, different people.

But he had to have be brave enough to make the change, to leave a career or a position that he was very good at and very comfortable to try something new to better himself.

You know, the funny thing about just listening to your story here, we're talking about the ability to adapt. But what your son had or has is the conf to adapt to that new environment, which I think is.

Is in some cases more important than having the ability because you could have the ability, but afraid to use it.

Sure, absolutely. So I. I know that he didn't know a lot about electricity, so I was like, okay, well, he's got a lot to learn.

But every day he came home just talking about all the different things and all the new and. But that was the change that he needed to really restart that fire and propel him on this next leg of his journey.

Well, it sounds like a cool situation. Yeah, it was. So I'm trying to.

Trying to make it really, really simple for someone that's, let's say, not good with change, but somehow has to embrace that change to adapt. Whether it be, let's say in a. In a new place you're moving to or a new job you're moving to. It's part of our natural growth. There's.

There's no question about that. And I'm pretty comfortable in saying that we all have the innate ability to adapt to any environment.

We just put up these roadblocks in our mind saying, we can't do it. We can't do it.

Now, when I, When I was growing up and we didn't have a choice because my dad was in law enforcement as well, so we get transferred every now and then.

So most of the time the transfer would happen in between the school years, but every once in a while, you would land out of the sky into a new school.

Yuch.

As a kid, that is not. I just remember being so scared. Yeah, I just remember that. So.

But after it happened once or twice, was it easier to adapt?

Yes, yes, it certainly was. But. But it will tell you this. The big, big test. Beautiful downtown Ottawa to beautiful downtown Williams Lake.

Oh, those aren't the same Beautifuls.

No, they're not the same Beautifuls. So you talk about the ability to adapt. Well, yeah, and we don't like change.

And you're, let's say, and you're also your formative years, so you got a lot of things going on all at once.

But, you know, and as we talk about this, I think there's the other side of the spectrum that people, when they're forced into change, like seniors that maybe go from living on their own and they can't anymore, and now they have to go into assisted living. That's a change that probably wasn't their choice, but for the betterment of their health, they had to make it.

So do you think they'd ex. They, they would have ever expected they'd have to adapt to that situation?

I don't think so. I think everybody likes to think that, you know, they'll be on their own till that time comes. And. Yeah. But, yeah, it's.

I've seen it happen a couple of different instances with friends and just not something you think about where, you know, it's like, oh, my dad went to the hospital, he's never getting out. And I was like, huh. Like you just. When you hear those words, it's, it's, it's scary thing to hear.

But it is a scary thing to hear. And I mean, you. You can always say, well, you just gotta flip it around and be positive about it. But that's not always an easy thing to do.

No, no, not at all. It's. It's very easy, once again, to say. But to actually put that positive thought into an uncomfortable change is not easy, to your point.

Not at all. But somehow we hone this ability. It doesn't matter where we're at. And I, And I can, and I can tell you right now, and I always.

I always say, and people will never believe me when I say this, but I'm shy and I'm an introvert, because that's what I know. I know. Okay. Okay. Especially, Especially my wife. Well, he didn't grow up. You can talk to anybody.

That's because I learned that ability to talk to people because of my other job. But that's what it was. It was forced, clear learning. It was forced on me.

And we've talked about the public speaking before, your ability to adapt in that environment as well.

But if you can get up there and you can convey a message in a strong, effective, motivational way, then it makes it so much easier to just go anywhere and do whatever you want.

Yeah. And you don't come by these things honestly. There was a lot of mentors that I had that gave me phenomenal advice when speaking to large crowds.

I wouldn't have figured it out by myself, but you gotta adapt, change. You gotta figure it out if you want to be good at it. So one basic one was when I was talking to big groups, I was kind of talking to the front row.

And then my mentors, like, hey, talk to the one person at the farthest back side of the room and make sure they hear you when you're speaking because then you're talking to the whole room. So just little things like that. But I didn't know that.

I thought I was talking and communicating, but I had to change what I did in order to be able to be effective. So I appreciated the coach that I got.

The ability to adapt to the different environments. So this experience, the ability to adapt is going to be different for everyone.

Yes.

You have to find your own little, I'll say niche, process, whatever you want. That, that really in my mind is finding that comfort zone. And really when you land out of the sky, it's figuring out where your comfort zone is.

But wouldn't, wouldn't it make sense to say that you have to be comfortable in your own skin and that is your comfort zone?

Absolutely.

Yep.

How important is this, you think with respect to, As a, as I started out with this thing, it's, it affects your happiness, your ability to succeed just by honing that, that skill. Ability to adapt.

I think it depends too, on your, your life partner. You know, if you're not the same people and one is extremely adventurous and loves change and the other one doesn't, it could be some challenges.

Right.

So usually you, I, I see like. So if one person's usually outward and adventurous, usually the other person is. So they're both probably adaptable to change or vice versa.

If one person is a homebody and they like being where they are in that routine, so does the other person. Great. But yeah, it's, it's to each their own.

It's to each their own and, and just getting back. And it used to drive my mom crazy because she'd say, what are you doing next week? And I, I'd say, I have no idea. I won't know until next week.

Because literally doing that old job, I'd come in, in my comfortable environment, say, this is what my plan is today. And within 10 seconds I'm in a different environment and I have to adapt.

Yeah. So sometimes it's forced on you.

Yeah. So I mean, and then you just go with the flow and don't get too excited about it.

So I mean, if you had a plan, let's say, to go to Vancouver next week, and all of a sudden you're, you're doing what you would normally do, do Research, where should I go for, like a good launch and who should I bring to lunch with me and, and who should I show what, what places? And all of a sudden, guess what? It's not Vancouver anymore, it's Montreal.

Yeah.

Same. Same job, different environment. Right.

Readjust, adapt and move forward and move on.

And what if we don't learn the disability to adopt them? But, but before you answer this, you've already said, well, people don't want to change.

Some do. Yeah.

Yeah. If they don't, what's the big deal?

Right? Yeah. Who are you to say that them not wanting to change is a bad thing?

Do you think that if they don't embrace that ability to adopt that they're missing out on, like, oh, no. Missing it.

Because if they're happy in what they're doing and to your point, if they're happy in their own skin and they're, they've got a good job and they're just happy with that, is that a bad thing? I don't think so. It's not for everybody.

But if you're wanting to get ahead in life and you want to make big changes and stuff, but you are too afraid to. I think it's limiting, but I don't know if it's a bad thing if you're not wanting to change.

Travel.

I, I know, and it's always been my belief, and I wish I had done a lot more when I was younger that, that opportunity to travel different countries, different cultures, really, to embrace those cultures, those countries. You're. You're actually developing that ability to adapt.

Absolutely.

And that's so much of an education into itself.

Right? Yeah. I was never a big traveler, like, just outside of work, and my wife was always like, oh, the boy should go and experience the world and all.

That sort of stuff.

And I'm like, why are you sending them out there? Like it. They're fine here. But, you know, after, you know, a few years, you kind of sit back and go, yeah.

And then, you know, one of my sons did go to Europe for a month and just the learnings that he came home with and all the things, oh, this room didn't work out, so we had to move to another room. Yes, you're right. It, it unconsciously builds the ability to change.

So resilience and the ability to adapt, they do, they relate to each other. Do you think? I don't know.

Resilience. I'm going to need a thesaurus.

Just, just, just your ability to stay strong in different situations. Because if you let's say, land in that university environment and you realize, hey, this isn't for me.

And someone says, no, no, just, just give it a chance. Give it a chance. You're relying on your resilience to, to kind of get you through that.

And that resilience will feed in that ability to adapt in that environment. And that's. That, that's as simple as it's as it gets.

Or if it's outside of the ability to adopt or if it's something that, that you truly, truly want to do and you realize it's going to be an uphill climb and nothing is going to get in your way. That's.

That's the way you have to look at it and then put the ability to adapt back in the equation and say, okay, because going up that hill, I might have to kind of engage a few different environments just so I can get to where I want to go.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see just like a survey of the general public asking those questions, you know, how, how much you like change, you know, just to see what the general consensus is. Just out of sheer interest because yeah, it's. Change is scary and you see that unfortunately.

And I don't want to go down this road too deep, but you know, sometimes people that are in abusive relationships can't make a change.

No.

Because there's a lot more at risk. So sometimes you just can't. That could have gone. We could go way down this path.

But for different reasons. Correct. Okay, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we actually could keep going on about this ability to adapt, but now we're going to say to our listeners that that music is playing, so we have adapt another way and share a few thoughts about her ability to adapt.

And you know what, you know what I love about having these conversations with your mad dog is that there's a lot of times I have these points and I put them down, but you come up with them. So it makes my job so much easier. So I have truly appreciated is the.

Art of rambling sometimes once or one or two.

Yeah, about so.

And I'm thinking about this because remember, change is a constant in our life and we become better at our embracing this adaptation by considering a few things, ask additional questions. So that's exactly what you're suggesting.

Before you get into that environment, ask as many questions as you can so you can actually increase your comfort and increase your ability to adapt in that environment.

Back in the day, it goes the 80s, there used to be those television commercials that inform you and then it came across the screen. The more you know, you know. But that has set a bias to this.

Learn to look at things from a different lens. That's always important. And I know that we just did an episode on communication, but maybe we should have talked about that a little bit.

But if you can look at that environment from someone else's perspective, not just yours, that might help you in that ability to adapt. Consider your ability to adapt as a form of learning and embrace it that way. Here's one. And I love it because I said it more than once.

You have to be comfortable with being in discomfort.

Yes.

Yeah. So I, I'd say that. Okay. In order for me to develop the best I can, I have to put myself in an environment that I feel the least comfortable with.

And then when I feel really comfortable in there, it's time for me to be.

Time for a change.

Time for a change.

And the more you do that, it's amazing how much it builds your confidence and your ability to do whatever you want in any environment for that matter. And this one. Accept change is inevitable. Fact. Fact.

Yeah.

In.

In my business world of food service and retail food, if you're not comfortable with change, that is not the place for you. And we say that all the time.

So, you know, you know, the funny thing about it, it seems like as I kind of share those, those loss points, it's, it's more acceptance than anything because we don't have a choice because the change is going to be there and we. And like, like you've made a couple of comments about this. If people don't want to change, we're. First of all, we're not going to make them.

We're not going to judge them. But at the end of the day, there's. They're going to. In my mind, they're going to lose out on so much by not at least putting.

Putting their foot in that pool for a little bit.

Their choice.

Their choice. I'm. Unless you have something else to add here, I'm going to leave it with a quote.

I'm good.

Okay. It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can manage change.

I like it.

Charles Darwin.

That guy.

Yes. So remember to take advantage of the moment before the moment takes advantage of you. To learn more about eWalkabout, please visit us@ewalkabout.ca.