What is Adaptability?

What is adaptability?

Here at True Balance Karate in Downers Grove, Illinois, we have a social-emotional learning program called True Character. I’m Master H, the owner and chief instructor here at the studio. I have two master’s degrees in education and developed this curriculum to meet the needs of our youngest students, who are three or four, and our oldest student, who is 85.

This month, we are talking about adaptability. Last month, we were talking about discipline and what we needed to do in terms of getting our work done before we play. Adaptability plays a little bit of a role in that idea. It’s being willing and able to make change.

Problem-Solving

When we’re talking about adaptability, we’re talking about having your eyes open, being aware of things around you, having an open mind, and problem-solving. Adaptability is all about problem-solving, as is discipline, to an extent, which is what we talked about last month.

Being disciplined means you have to problem-solve how you’re going to get everything you want to get done before you go and play. Your adaptability means, if I set my goal and this is what I want to get done, what do I need to adapt? What do I need to change? How do I need to address it? What creative thinking do I need to put in place to make that happen? These things go together and work together along the way.

As we’re working with younger kids, they can get set in their ways. Adults, too—we like things the way we like things. Absolutely. But if a kid really has their heart set on chocolate ice cream or a certain color car that their friend is playing with, the temper tantrum or emotional outburst happens.

That’s when, as adults, we need to practice patience and teach them how to be adaptable, how to problem-solve. If they currently can’t play with the blue truck, what could they do instead? How can we solve the problem? What can we do? They can’t just go up and take it from someone else. They can absolutely ask for it. They can pick a different color car. They can choose one car to play with for a little while and then switch.

Modeling Adaptability

Those actions help teach adaptability. It’s up to us as parents to make sure we’re modeling that kind of behavior—being willing and able to change as we grow and learn. The more knowledge and skills we gather, the more flexible we can become in our thinking and understanding of the world around us.

As we go through this month of adaptability, we want to make sure we’re modeling these behaviors. We need to understand that many of us are set in our ways, though some more than others. We’ll talk about how to adapt to environments, how to adapt to people, and whether we’ve adapted too much. We’ll also discuss setting healthy boundaries.

There’s value in adapting but also in maintaining a sense of what is important and must be done a certain way. Finding that balance and understanding where to draw the line helps us grow and be adaptable in other areas of life.

Throughout this month, we’ll explore how to adapt in various ways. I’m really looking forward to sharing this conversation with you all.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the mat!

True Balance Karate was founded in 2012 by Master Sue and Paul Helsdon.

We offer kids karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up. These lessons are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need — specialized for their age group — for school excellence and later success in life.

Our adult martial arts training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay) in shape, or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 630-663-2000. You can also contact us here. True Balance Karate is at 406 Ogden Ave Downers Grove Illinois, 60515 (next to CVS) Check out our Facebook!