Mind Elasticity is a Must
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It was indeed a sad sight to see the CEO of Nokia, ending his speech with tears in his eyes, during the press conference. He said “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow we lost”. You don’t necessarily have to do something wrong to lose. Many have lost as a result of either being blind with pride about their current achievements which hinders them from learning more and transforming further, or because of their laziness and lack of commitment to take a glimpse of the future, due to the luxuries they enjoy out of their present success. A famous tale that depicts this situation is the “Hare and the Tortoise”. The hare confidently decided to have a nap by overestimating his speed and underestimating the speed of his opponent the tortoise. Kodak, which was ones a world famous brand is yet another victim of this syndrome, which compels to embrace defeat simply because they opted to be stubborn and monotonous. They rejected to embrace digital photography technology, adamantly believing that the technology they possessed was sufficient to rule the future market. Unfortunately the digital photography technology took over the conventional film reels that Kodak possessed, leaving them obsolete.
The whole world is rapidly embracing changes, in the arena of technology, life standards, and human dreams and aspirations. If you don’t abide by these changes for the betterment, then you will surely be outdated and left alone as an ineffectual and obsolete personality who cannot adopt to change. Today, we hardly see people listening to music using cassette tapes, likewise we don’t see anyone watching movies using the old Betamax players and Betamax cassettes. So, we need to realize that what was ones significant in life can become insignificant one day as a result of the evolving social and technological life cycle. There are many similar stories where people and brands that were ones very successful and famous have been left in the past, simply because they opted not to change while the whole world was changing. No army in the world would ever choose swords and shields to fight terrorism. What we need to perceive is that life is not a one-time construction. Life is a continuous construction of one’s personality, so that he or she could willingly fit in and perform with the prevailing conditions. Though in the past our grandfathers were able to attain satisfying jobs merely by having an O/L qualification, none of us will be able to do so in today’s highly competitive business world. The bars of expectation have risen sky high and it will continue to rise higher in the future. When the bars of expectation are rising high the only possibility available is for us to advance our standards of hurdling high up, if not we will be disqualified from the competition of life.
The wise have always been intelligent and changed accordingly when needed knowing that they will be rejected if they didn’t do so. Albert Einstein ones said “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”, this statement will always linger a truth until the world stops evolving. Knowledge and skills will continue to transform, and those who reject it will be out of demand, thus they will be overruled by the evolving society in return.
A famous Chinese proverb states that “The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher”. If you study the story of any successful brand or personality, you will realize that the key to their success has always been intelligence, constant adaption, transformation and change.
There is no argument over a person grounding firmly on his opinions and beliefs, but it would be even more fruitful for him to be flexible in his approach. If a person who likes to eat Karthakolomban Mangoes, opt to use it as a bait for fishing, he will be futile in it because the fish will never be attractive to Mangoes. Where there is Intelligence there is transformation and change. The world will remain the same just as it was at the beginning, if there was no need to change. There can always be a possibility for the master plan to fail, but we should have the mental elasticity to bounce back if not we will be deemed to be a failure.
Mahathma Gandhi rightfully said that there is no limit for adaptability, as it is one’s ability or the strength to resist and adapt. It will be detrimental for someone to go against a worthy change by demanding the world to adapt to his belief. It would be rather beneficial for him to change his beliefs to the revolution taking place in the world. It is in our hands to understand that natural and unexpected changes may arise in any realm of life, whether it be personal, social or professional circumstances. The whole world would have been in darkness if Thomas Alva Edison chose to lay down when he failed his first attempt to invent the bulb. Stubbornness is the enemy of change and Laziness is an agent against change. If you can’t change your mindset, then you will never be able to change anything. We are at an hour of great need, in people who possess “Mind Elasticity”, the willingness of the mind to change and adapt.
“The more you adapt, the more interesting you are.” Martha Stewart