The number-one predictor of success

Take a scroll through social media or a walk through a nice neighborhood and you may think success is determined by where someone goes to school, lives, or works.

Or by the family they’re born into, the friends they surround themselves with, or the person they marry.

These things might influence your likelihood of achieving or sustaining success but they don’t predict it.

The number-one predictor of success is adaptability.

This is as true in career and finances as it is in health and relationships.

What does it mean to be adaptable?

The dictionary defines adaptability as the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions.

That feels accurate, however the key to adaptability being a predictor of success lies in that word “adjust.”

For a lot of people, adjusting means surviving.

It means pushing through, putting up with.

It means tolerating.

Adaptability as a predictor of success feels different. It’s the ability to adjust to changes and challenges without suffering.

This doesn’t mean successful adaptation is all sunshine and rainbows. It means the way you adjust to changes and challenges matters.

How you frame a new circumstance determines how well you adapt to it—and how likely you are to succeed on the other side of it.

For example, perseverance has a higher energetic quality than survival.

Allowing is softer than pushing through.

Acceptance is more welcoming than tolerance.

Ask yourself these questions

Next time you’re faced with a change or challenge in your relationships, at work, or with your health, go beyond asking if you’re adapting and notice how you’re adapting.

Is the way you’re reacting to your new circumstance moving you closer to or further from the way you want to feel?

What is a potential upside to your new circumstance that you may have overlooked?

What is the cost of believing there is only downside to your new circumstance?

Successful people get curious about the changes and challenges that come into their lives. They opt out of suffering and master the skill of adaptation.