Adapting Your Process

My 17 year old son was talking to me about a project for his architectural design class.  He spent the last 3 weeks working on a design and model for the office he was building, when he got stuck and realized that was not the path he wanted to take.  He ended up redesigning the entire building and, while talking to me, said “The only issue is that my structure is supposed to highlight my process, but I’ve just changed the entire thing.”  To which I replied, “Changing the structure does highlight your process. Adapting your plan based on experience is a part of your process, not separate from it.“

This reminded me so much of life.  We set out on this path, thinking that everything will fall in place along it, only to eventually get stuck and need to reconfigure our destination.  So often we feel like a failure when our path or process changes.  We forget that, just like nature, we were born to evolve.  Your process naturally includes adaptation, it’s only our human brains and desire for control that tell us otherwise.

Adaptation does not mean you have failed.  It means you are paying attention and growing, just as you were meant to.