Modification is not Failure

 “Modification is not failure.”

 I thought about that today in yoga class.

  Yet as I adjusted my positioning during certain poses, part of me still felt like a failure. I caught myself thinking, I can’t do that. And then I thought - Yet.

Augie with my mat and PT instructions

 I became self-conscious of every modification. I felt vulnerable, awkward, limited. I was convinced everyone in the class must be noticing me even though they weren’t. An unspoken rule in yoga is not to look at others and compare yourself.

 In many ways, I was experiencing exactly what Ken Blanchard described in his Dynamics of Change – “People feel awkward, ill-at-ease, and self-conscious.”

 I almost didn’t go to class at all.

 I was driving home from physical therapy and realized I had just enough time to make a stretching class. I was tired from PT and part of me wanted to skip it but another part of me realized something important, new growth often comes from adaptation, rather than force.

I believe that is true far beyond yoga.

There are so many moments in our work lives when we feel exactly like this:
a new project,
a new responsibility,
a new manager,
a new team,
a new technology,
a new stage of life.

At first, we may feel uncertain, uncomfortable, or incapable. We compare ourselves to who we used to be or who everyone else appears to be.

Growth is rarely graceful in the beginning.

Sometimes growth is simply picking up the pieces, rearranging them, modifying what no longer works, and learning a new way forward.

And perhaps that’s not failure at all.

Perhaps that is resilience.