Adaptability Over Endurance

Why Resilience is More About Adaptability Than Endurance

Endurance is holding on. Resilience is changing with the wind.

We tend to glorify grit. the idea that if we just push harder, stay the course, and refuse to bend, we’ll make it through. But in reality, life rarely rewards the person who stays rigid in a storm. It rewards the one who adjusts the sails before the wind changes again.

A few months ago, a client of mine had their biggest annual fundraiser planned. Outdoor venue. Months of preparation. Forecast: perfect. Until the skies opened up and dumped a week’s worth of rain in one afternoon. Instead of mourning the loss, they asked one simple question: What’s still possible?

Within 48 hours, they had moved the entire event online. Volunteers were rerouted to manage live chats, a local musician streamed from their living room, and the donation link spread faster than the original RSVP list. They didn’t just salvage the event. They exceeded their fundraising goal.

That’s resilience. Not white-knuckling through bad weather. Not pretending the plan still works when it doesn’t. But adjusting fast, without getting stuck in what should have been.

If you want to strengthen your own adaptability muscle:

• Ask “What’s still possible?” immediately. This is your mental pivot point. It cuts the emotional tailspin short.
• Run quarterly “disaster drills.” Pick one random thing that could go wrong: supplier goes bankrupt, power outage, regulation change. Talk through how you’d adapt in 48 hours.
• Keep a “pivot fund.” Even a small pool of money you can access fast gives you options most people don’t have.
• Maintain a list of on-call allies. People in different fields who can jump in when things go sideways: a tech person, a venue contact, a copywriter, a legal brain.
• Pre-write alternative scenarios. Not full plans, just bullet points for “Plan B” versions of major events or campaigns so you’re not starting from scratch under pressure.
• Build emotional slack into your team culture. This means expecting things to change, praising people for spotting risks early, and rewarding adaptability. Not just flawless execution.

Endurance has its place. But the world moves too fast to just hold on tight. The people who make it through aren’t the ones who refuse to bend. They’re the ones who know how to move with the wind.