Lesson 2: Adapting and Developing Your ESS
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Change Is the Basic Law of Nature
One of the central ideas in Lesson 2 is simple but profound: success belongs not to the strongest or smartest, but to those who can adapt.
Charles Darwin is often credited with the statement:
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change."
Whether Darwin actually said those exact words is debated, but the principle remains true. Change is one of the few constants in life. Industries change. Relationships change. Careers change. Technology changes. Markets change. Organizations change. The people who thrive are often those who recognize those changes early and adjust accordingly.
Many of us have experienced situations where we ignored obvious signs that it was time to make a change. Sometimes it is a job. Sometimes it is a relationship. Sometimes it is a business strategy, a habit, or a way of thinking. We stay because we are comfortable. We stay because we have invested time. We stay because change feels risky.
The problem is that failing to adapt can cost us months or even years of progress.
Why Adaptability Matters More Than Strength
Our society often celebrates intelligence, talent, and strength as the keys to success. While those qualities certainly have value, they are not the entire story.
Many highly successful people are not necessarily the smartest individuals in the room. Likewise, many exceptionally intelligent people never achieve the level of success they expected. The difference is often adaptability.
You have one lifetime to learn, grow, and evolve. A species may have centuries to adapt to a changing environment. We do not. The speed at which we learn from experience, adjust our thinking, and adapt our behavior often determines the speed at which we progress through life.
The ability to change course when necessary is one of the most valuable skills we can develop.
Challenging Outdated Thinking
One of the concepts discussed in this lesson is the idea that we often carry outdated assumptions about the world around us. We inherit beliefs, habits, and ways of thinking that may have served us well in the past but no longer fit our current circumstances.
Throughout history, many accepted truths were eventually challenged. There was a time when questioning conventional wisdom carried significant risk. Yet progress often begins when someone is willing to ask a simple question: "Why?"
In many areas of life, we fall into the trap of black-and-white thinking. We convince ourselves that there is only one right path, one right answer, or one correct approach. Adaptability requires something different. It requires curiosity. It requires humility. It requires the willingness to admit that our current understanding may be incomplete.
One practical exercise I found helpful from this lesson is to ask "Why?" three times.
When you encounter a problem, a belief, or an assumption, keep asking why. Dig beneath the surface. Challenge your conclusions. Often what we initially accept as truth is simply an unexamined assumption.
Life Is a Series of Experiments
One of my favorite ideas from this lesson is viewing life as a series of experiments.
Thomas Edison reportedly said:
"I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them."
Whether we are talking about leadership, business, relationships, finances, health, or personal growth, progress often comes through experimentation.
Try something. Evaluate the results. Adjust. Try again.
Many people view failure as evidence that they are not capable. Adaptable people view failure differently. They view it as information.
If a business fails, there are lessons to learn. If a relationship ends, there are lessons to learn. If a leadership decision produces poor results, there are lessons to learn. In experimentation, there is often no final failure—only information that can help us make a better decision next time.
Success and failure are both forms of feedback. The important question is whether we are paying attention.
Looking for the Signs
As we move through life, we are constantly collecting data. Some of that data tells us we are moving in the right direction. Some of it tells us we need to make adjustments.
The challenge is that many people ignore the signs. We continue pursuing strategies that are not working. We refuse to reconsider assumptions that no longer make sense. We cling to plans that should have been revised long ago.
Adaptable people do something different. They observe. They analyze. They adjust. They understand that changing direction is not weakness. Sometimes it is wisdom.
Developing Your Personal ESS
One of the more interesting concepts introduced in this lesson comes from evolutionary biology: the idea of an Evolutionary Stable Strategy, or ESS.
In nature, certain strategies consistently outperform others when organisms compete for resources and survival. Over time, those strategies become dominant because they work. While most of us are not studying evolutionary biology, the principle can still be useful.
What is your personal ESS? What habits, skills, relationships, routines, and mindsets consistently move you closer to your goals? What gives you an advantage? What helps you thrive?
Each of us is competing in a constantly changing environment. The people who succeed are not necessarily those who work the hardest or possess the highest IQ. Often they are the people who develop systems and strategies that allow them to adapt more effectively than those around them.
An ESS is not something you discover once and keep forever. It evolves as circumstances change. What worked five years ago may not work today. What works today may not work five years from now. The key is to remain flexible enough to continue adapting.
If You Want Different Results
Every relationship contains elements of adaptation. Every career contains elements of adaptation. Every leadership challenge contains elements of adaptation.
If we want results different from the masses, we cannot simply think like the masses. We must be willing to experiment, learn, and adjust. Each experience gives us something valuable. Sometimes it is knowledge. Sometimes it is wisdom. Sometimes it is a lesson we would rather not learn. Either way, we move forward.
If there is one takeaway from this lesson, it is this: Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.
The people who flourish are not those who resist change but those who learn to adapt alongside it. When something is no longer working, do not be afraid to adjust your strategy, challenge your assumptions, and develop a new ESS. Life rarely stands still, and neither should we.
A Personal Example of Adaptation
One area where I have had to apply this lesson personally has been the increasing influence of The Joint Commission (TJC) within Army dentistry.
If I am being honest, my initial reaction was frustration. Like many military dentists, I saw additional training requirements, new compliance standards, increased documentation, and expanding administrative requirements consuming time that I believed could be spent caring for patients. It often felt like new requirements were continually being added without anyone asking what should be removed in return.
My natural tendency was to focus on what I believed was wrong with the system. Why are we doing this? Does this actually improve patient care? Are we solving real problems or hypothetical ones? These are still questions worth asking.
However, over time, I realized that my frustration was not changing the reality of the situation. Whether I agreed with every requirement or not, the environment had changed. Army dentistry was changing. The expectations placed upon clinics were changing. The regulatory landscape was changing.
At that point, I had a choice. I could spend my energy wishing things were the way they used to be, or I could adapt and learn how to operate effectively within the new environment.
That does not mean abandoning critical thinking. It does not mean accepting every policy without question. Adaptation is not blind compliance. Rather, it means recognizing reality, understanding the new rules of the environment, and developing strategies that allow you to succeed despite the challenges.
In many ways, this mirrors the lesson's discussion of an Evolutionary Stable Strategy (ESS). The people and organizations that thrive are rarely those that spend all their energy resisting change. They are the ones that learn how to navigate it.
Today, I still believe there are opportunities to improve many aspects of our system. However, I have also come to appreciate that effective leaders do more than identify problems. They adapt, create solutions, help others navigate change, and find ways to continue accomplishing the mission despite imperfect circumstances.
Sometimes adaptability is not about changing the environment. Sometimes it is about changing ourselves.
Key Takeaways
Success is rarely determined by strength or intelligence alone. More often, it is determined by our ability to adapt, learn, and evolve as circumstances change.
The world around us is constantly changing. Industries change. Technology changes. Relationships change. Leadership challenges change. The strategies that worked yesterday may not be the strategies that work tomorrow. Adaptable people recognize this reality and are willing to adjust when necessary.
Life is best viewed as a series of experiments. Every success provides confirmation. Every setback provides feedback. In experimentation, there is often no final failure—only information that can help us make a better decision next time.
The goal is not to stubbornly cling to outdated assumptions or ineffective strategies. The goal is to continually learn, challenge our thinking, collect data, and make course corrections that move us closer to our goals.
For me, that is the heart of Lesson Two: remain adaptable. Stay curious. Challenge assumptions. Learn from every experience. Develop systems and strategies that help you thrive in a changing environment. Most importantly, never stop growing.
A Faith-Based Reflection
As I reflected on this lesson, I found myself thinking about how often God works through change.
Throughout Scripture, God rarely leaves people where He finds them. Abraham was called to leave his homeland. Joseph endured slavery and imprisonment before becoming a leader in Egypt. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness before leading Israel. David went from shepherd to king. Peter transformed from an impulsive fisherman into a leader of the early Jesus movement. Paul went from persecuting believers to becoming one of Christianity's greatest missionaries.
In each case, growth required adaptation.
What stands out to me is that God's people were often required to trust Him before they fully understood what He was doing. Their circumstances changed. Their plans changed. Their understanding changed. Yet God's character remained constant.
That is an important distinction. Adaptability does not mean abandoning truth or changing our values with every passing trend. It means remaining anchored to timeless principles while remaining flexible enough to navigate changing circumstances.
As a Christian, I am called to renew my mind, grow in wisdom, and continually mature in my faith. That process requires humility. It requires the willingness to admit that we do not know everything and that God may be teaching us something through our successes, failures, relationships, and challenges.
Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to growth is believing we already have all the answers. Adaptability begins with humility, and humility creates space for God to continue shaping us into the people He wants us to become.
Reflection and Journaling
One of the recurring themes throughout The 67 Steps is the importance of reflection. Growth rarely happens by accident. It often occurs when we take time to honestly evaluate our experiences, challenge our assumptions, and learn from both our successes and failures.
Take a few minutes to consider the following questions and write down your thoughts.
Where in my life am I resisting change even though the signs suggest I need to adapt?
What assumptions am I holding that may no longer be serving me well?
Have I recently experienced a setback that I should view as feedback rather than failure?
What experiment am I currently running in my life, career, leadership, relationships, or faith?
What lessons have I learned from my most significant failures?
When was the last time I changed my mind about something important? What caused that change?
What habits, systems, or routines currently make up my personal ESS?
Which of those habits are helping me move toward my goals, and which are holding me back?
If I asked "Why?" three times about a challenge I am facing, what deeper issues might I uncover?
Identify one area of your life where your current approach is no longer producing the results you want. Instead of repeating the same strategy, try a new approach this week. Treat it as an experiment. Observe the results, learn from the outcome, and adjust accordingly.