In the immortal words of Charles Darwin, the British naturalist, geologist, and biologist, it reads: “It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change’’.
An average human, particularly the religious minded who consider anticipating changes (especially negative changes), as something to pray against, seldom expects change. But the truth is: that things do not remain the same. Everything is governed by the law of evolution, and if not evolving, it degenerates.
Change will surely come, even when we fail to sense it, act, and prepare for it. They always show up, And when they do, they often catch the unprepared unawares.
In this fast-changing world, change is now more predictable than stability. Things keep changing — things we never anticipated. Change forms part of the Universal principle of nature.
While those who never sensed or acted along before the changes show forth, do always have themselves to blame; those who did always, have the best and last laugh, as they have long seized the opportunity to get prepared for the inevitability of change.
In this era of constant changes, it would be foolhardy to believe that it is only when one gets to the bridge that one should cross it. The real wisdom, here, is to have devised many means of crossing the bridge, long before you get to the bridge. This will help a lot, as what might be obtainable last month might no longer be obtainable.
Realities keep changing by the day, as Charles Darwin called them, the most sensitive to change would have longed plan against change. The right mindset to beat any future obstacles to our plans, businesses, and lives is to know that change is natural.
Being change-sensitive affords us the following benefits:
* It helps us to explore the potential problems and opportunities that come with the change.
* It gets us better prepared than our competitors in handling the hassles the change might bring.
* It helps us avoid the inherent disruptions/destruction of change, long before they happen.
Those who are not change-expectant, always live in the disillusion that things will remain the same, will have themselves to blame like the defunct mobile phone giant, Nokia, who had all the opportunities to keep up with the growing trends in the phone markets but refused because it was not sensitive to the emerging change then. It lost the opportunity to remain relevant in the industry, all because it was not susceptible to change.
Kodak is another company that lost its relevance for being lackadaisical to the inevitability of change. Kodak ruled the world of photography in the 1980s.In the 1990s, their engineers became aware of digital photography. But they refused to upgrade and embraced change just because they felt and believed that people would always prefer to have their pictures printed. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy.
To keep being relevant, in anything you do, you must keep anticipating, sensing, acting, and preparing for change, because change is the only constant thing that will always come, whether or not you expect it or not. And it comes unexpectedly.
Some changes come unnoticed. Before you know it, they are here. And most changes disrupt our earlier ways of life as well as our occupations. Only those who are anticipatory of change are better prepared to cope with it and benefit from it.
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With all my Heart and Love, God bless you!
