A strong individual is not a rigid individual. In fact, exactly the opposite is true. Strength comes from flexibility. Although it’s important to be firm when you know something is right and to maintain that right position even when the crowd is going against you and wants to put you down, it’s also important to remember that no person is God. Nobody is infallible or invincible.
Sometimes when the tide has run against you for a long time, it may be that what you held as a certainty was, in fact, not true in the light of overwhelming circumstances. It’s smart to be able to see more than one way to accomplish a task. It’s wise to see more than one solution to any problem. It’s a good skill to see things as someone else might see them. Because when the plan that’s served you so well for so long doesn’t work anymore, it’s time to find another way. It’s time to bend, to move on, to change, to compromise, or you risk snapping like a dead branch in a stiff breeze.
When it comes to lasting a long time, to standing tall, to being strong but knowing when to bend, the trees have a lot to teach us.
I (Jim Rohn) don’t know if you’ve ever had first-hand experience of the tremendous destructive power of tropical-force storms. I’ve experienced a hurricane and had a chance to personally witness what a combination of wind and water can do to everything that stands in its path. The rain fell so long and hard that it completely soaked the ground and loosened the roots of even the tallest trees. At the same time, the wind blew with such force that century-old trees, tall and hard and strong, were blown over like so many toy soldiers knocked down by a toddler at play.
The enormous willows–some standing tall as a house and covering what would be an entire lot in some parts of the city–lithe and flexible and bending and bowing gracefully to the slightest breeze or the mightiest gust, weathered the heavy blows of the storm. They were almost the only large objects left standing after the air had cleared. Tall trees and telephone poles and sea walls were crushed by the storm. Houses built to stand up under normal circumstances collapsed, and their roofs were blown clear into the next county.
Everything that tried to oppose the storm’s fury was damaged or destroyed. Everything that gave way, that was strong yet flexible, survived.
We may not face a hurricane more than once or twice in our lives, if at all. But our best-laid plans do often go astray. It’s entirely possible and even likely that nothing will ever turn out as we expect, and so no matter how much we prepare for one turn of fate, something will sneak up from our blind side when we’re least expecting to be interrupted at our accustomed rounds. When that time comes, as it will, the people who survive and even triumph over the unanticipated will be people who are ready to adapt. They will bend in the first gust, they will step out of the path of the charging bull, they will pirouette while holding their place in the scheme of things, they will step back and let someone or something else bear the brunt of impact.
I don’t really think it’s more important today to be open to change and flexible in adapting to it than it has been in the past. It’s always been important to be flexible and farsighted–anticipating whenever we can, and when we can’t anticipate, being prepared fro all possibilities.
* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn