The Importance Of Being Able To Adapt To The Unpredictability Of Life.

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A common theme that I've brought up over the years via these topics that I've addressed is the idea of change, and how it is enviable in our lives. There is absolutely nothing in this world that stays the same forever. I believe that the majority of people are willing to acknowledge this. In some ways, the idea of change can be viewed as a comparison to how we evolve as people. We all start our journey of life as babies, and as life carries on we develop into adults. Throughout the process of developing into adults are constant changes happening to our minds and bodies. One of the interesting things about change and how it unfolds in our lives is that is that it has many forms and layers. It can be something that is hard for some people to accept, while others may welcome it. Furthermore, and similar to the constant changes that we go through physically and mentally, there are going to be instances where change will have both pros and cons. There will spots of change that will be welcoming in our lives. These types of change are generally considered good and the type that serves us in a positive way. On the opposite side of the spectrum when dealing with change, some forms of change may not be so appealing to us. These particular characteristics of change are the type that many of us have a hard time accepting, and could be considered as negative depending on the how the individual handles it. There is a famous quote by legendary martial artist Bruce Lee that is often quoted by many. The by Lee states; “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” When I hear this quote, I think of how important it is to be able to adapt to the unpredictability of life.

Yo, what up peeps? This is ya man Brad H. back on the scene once again, and I would like to welcome you all back to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am back once again to give my perspective on a topic that I feel would be beneficial to address. Thank you in advance to all of you that have read this far, and I hope that this topic will touch someone out there. Before getting into this week's topic, I want to give my opinion on a topic other than the focal point of this installment. I want to briefly give my take on the NBA since the playoffs will be starting pretty soon. I believe the defending champion Golden State Warriors are still the favorite to win it all once again this year. However, like others have brought up also, I'm beginning to see signs that this Warriors dynasty is beginning to crumble. A prime example is last night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves that they lost. I would have to say that the final six seconds of that game was a total meltdown by the Warriors. Then I see them lose to the lowly Phoenix Suns a couple of weeks ago, a game that I would never expect a healthy Warriors team to lose. Now in the Warriors defense, I will say that they could just holding off playing their best ball until the playoffs get here. I mean it is the later part of the season where most of the terrible teams are tanking, and the teams that are solidly in the playoffs are probably milking it a bit. I still feel the Warriors should be considered the favorite to win it all once again. However, I see several teams that I could potentially see knocking them off the throne. As for my San Antonio Spurs, I can't really see them moving past the seven seed. It is possible, but not likely with only six games remaining. It would be nice to see them advance out of the first round this year, but I'm not so sure if they end up facing the Denver Nuggets or Houston Rockets. We shall know in due time, but I think it is pretty cool that although there are only a handful of games left, there are still teams jockeying for position in both conferences. I'll be talking more NBA related things in upcoming topics, but for now I'm going to end it and transition into this week's topic of being able to adapt to the changes of life.

Before diving more into this week's topic, I want to start off by saying that a topic such as this one requires us to understand that there is a great deal of subjectivity to it. We all react and handle situations in different ways, so this isn't something that should be viewed in a vacuum. Just wanted to be sure and state that. Now going back to the quote by Bruce Lee that I brought up earlier, he states how water is formless and becomes whatever it is put into. Now though the human body is primarily made up of water, we as people aren't physically able to become whatever situation that we're put into. I can't just jump into a tub and become the tub, nor can I get into a car and become the car. What I believe Lee was trying to convey in his message is the importance of being able to mentally adapt to the situations that life puts us in. I talked earlier about how change is something that is guaranteed to happen in life and how many people struggle with certain types of change. Naturally, if you have been accustomed to anything whether a person or object constantly being in your life, losing that person or object will have an effect on you. If you've been used to living your life a certain type of way and find that you've been thrown off of that way of living, it is going to play a huge role in how you live your life going forward. Situations such as these require for us to adapt to the circumstances at hand to keep ourselves going. It is not much different than how an animal in the wild adapts to its environment to survive. Now when it comes to animals and their ability to adapt, what happens to the animals that are unable to adapt? I won't say what happens, but I'm certain that all of you already knows what happens to them. To a certain degree, this is similar to what we as humans are fighting against when it comes to change.

Before I get the obvious reason of why it is important to be able to adapt to how unpredictable life can be, I want to give an example of a situation that may require a person to adapt to change. I'm bringing up this particular example because, though it may be one that most of us that may not be wealthy can really relate to, it is one that has affected many people that have had to get accustomed to a lifestyle that they may not be used to. Now we all know that around the time period of 2008-09 that the United States was hit by a massive recession. There were a lot of banks and businesses that shutdown, and there was an epidemic of people losing their jobs. Now there were many people that experienced losses during that period that put them in a situation where they had to adjust their lifestyle. If a person goes from making 120,000 dollars per year to 40,000, that is a pretty significant income change. Now an individual that has the ability to adapt to a change of this nature will make the necessary adjustments to keep themselves moving forward. Unfortunately, there were some people that were not able to adapt to a lesser way of living, and it ultimately ended up becoming detrimental to them and their families. There were stories of people that were turning to bad habits such as drugs and alcohol to cope, and in some drastic cases, people had committed suicide. This is just one example of many that I could bring up, but I wanted to point this out because of how drastic things can get when a person can't adapt to the changes of it. We all know that life can be tough at times, and it isn't always easy to adapt to change.

So why is it important to be able to adapt to change and the unpredictability of life? Well in some instances, in order to survive, you have to adapt. In other words, there are some situations in life where if we're not willing to adapt to changes, we run the risk of not surviving the changes. There are going to be times when your life is on the line, and if you're not able to adapt to whatever situation that life throws at you, you run the risk of losing it all. I know it sucks to hear these kinds of things, but we have to picture life as if someone has pushed us into the deeper part of the water without us being aware of it initially. In those kinds of scenarios, you will either sink or swim right? If you want to give yourself a fighting chance of surviving, you're going to swim to the best of your ability aren't you? The positive note that I want to leave this topic on is the fact that though it may be tough adapting to change at times, I believe that we as a people rise to the occasion in most instances. When I think of how great people of the past survived and endured hard times in their lives, I feel encouraged that the human spirit can rise above almost anything that life can throw at us. As I mentioned earlier, adapting to what life throws at us isn't always an easy thing to do. We as people just have to be willing to accept the fact that change is going to happen in life. From my perspective, the willing to accept change is the first step of the process of being able to adapt to the unpredictability that is life.

Well that is pretty much all I have to say for this go round people. I hope that I was able to express myself in a manner that could be understood. This has once again been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' brought to you by Brad H. Thanks goes to all of you that stopped by. I'm so grateful and appreciative of you that did. If any of you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to do so in the comment section. If you're on Twitter and you'd like to connect with me, you can do so at the handle @BradrickH. I hope that the weekend is treating you all well so far, and I hope you all have a great upcoming week. I'll see you all soon! Peace!

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