Chameleon adaptability- Five Minute Friday
Adaptability can be a two-edged sword in my experience. The ability to be flexible and change my tactics in response to situations is something that I value and am working on in my parenting and leadership. It is a skill that I am striving to teach my daughter in order to increase her resilience. and yet, at many times in my life, I have found my ability to adapt to go too far. I have become a chameleon seeking to blend in with whoever was around me at the time. Even my accent has been known to shift according to who I am speaking with! It can be easy to adapt so far that you lose who you are as a person.
I know for me that this has always been related to how strong I feel in my identity, in how comfortable I am within myself. I have come to recognise a shift into the chameleon adapting to be a warning sign that an area of weakness in my identity has been exposed. It is a trigger for me to step back and reflect, to seek God, to figure out what I actually think about something.
This is an ongoing learning journey within my own life and leadership. Fear of looking stupid, of being rejected or ridiculed has fueled my chameleon ways. Stepping through that fear while still maintaining flexibility is key.
This post was inspired by the Five Minute Friday prompt word “adapt”. Each Friday, a group of writers gather to share their thoughts- writing five minutes without editing. I love these few minutes of letting my thoughts flow without censoring my words. I hope you are encouraged and provoked to think by them too. Check out what others have written here.