The only constant in this universe is “change”. At one point or another, you or your business will be forced to quickly change to some degree, in one way or another. How do you get used to a new environment and adapt as quickly as possible?
Adapting quickly is a skill. Like any other skill, you can be better at it with practice. You have to restrict yourself or your business in uncomfortable situations and practice adapting as quickly as you can.
Overview & Episode Content
- Can Anyone Build a Simple Gabled Roof as Fast as Professionals?
- Adopt Unwanted Feral Cats and Put Them to Work
- Make Feral Cats Stay by Letting Them Get Used to Their Space
- How to Adapt as Quickly as Possible
Can Anyone Build a Simple Gabled Roof as Quickly as Professionals?
I used to talk about this several times in the past episodes of Freedom In Five Minutes as well as on other podcasts that I’ve had the pleasure to be on.
I have been building a cat house here on our beautiful acreage, for weeks! And now, the cat house is finally done complete with gabled roofing! The funny thing was, it was the first time I ever did a gabled roof. If you don’t know what a gabled roof is, it is basically an angled roof with composite shingles. This is typically what you see in suburban houses.
I built the cat house complete with gabled roofing so that the water or the snow quickly runs off it because of it’s angled surface. Well, because it was the first time I’ve ever done that, it did not take me quickly to finish the project.
There was this one YouTuber who was like, “Yeah, it took me about a good eight hours.”
Of course, he had been building all his life! So, he went super quickly. Whereas, I literally took two weeks to do it. But it’s done. It’s awesome and fantastic.
Now, what more did we need for this cat house? Well, we needed some cats. We needed to get some feral cats in there.
Adopt Unwanted Feral Cats and Put Them to Work
I built the cat house outside because we wanted to adopt feral cats. You know, the unwanted ones that never fit in with any family. So, where did we get these feral cats?
We checked the SPCA and a bunch of other places, looking for unwanted feral or barn cats. Essentially, these were not the type of cats that were going to be in our house as pets.
But as far as I could tell, these places made it difficult for us. They required us to sign contracts saying we had to have them indoors. We were required to have them this way and that. It sucked because in most of these places, these cats were just going to end up getting euthanized quickly.
Why not let the totally feral ones that are not going to go well with a family—be workers right here and have a good life? They have some good Meow Mix, plenty of water, and some gophers to snack on. They’d be very happy kitties.
Cats reduce the mouse or rodent population that lure snakes in our property. Cats can even eat small snakes! So, instead of having these unwanted cats euthanized, we want to adopt them and put them to work here on our acreage where they can live happy and healthy lives in freedom while we enjoy terrific side-benefits for keeping them around.
Finally, we looked at Craigslist and quickly found a lady who had five feral cats available. So, we contacted them and these cats are awesome! We have four cats in our cat house and every one of them is super nice cats.
Make Feral Cats Stay Quickly by Letting Them Adapt to Their Space
Now, you might be wondering how is it that my cats stayed on our property? How did I keep them from returning to their previous owner?
One of the things we had to do was lock them up in the cat house for a week and a day. Why did we have to do that? Why did we have to lock them into the cat house?
Cats are very territorial. And to force them to get used to a place, you have to put them in that situation where they literally could not leave the space. They were locked up in the cat house and you can see their little beady eyes staring out of the little windows.
There were no exits other than a side door that I built so that we can change the kitty litter and feed them. So we had them stuck in there and I just felt bad for them. Finally, the time came to let them out.
So, I went over to the cat house and drilled holes enough for the cats to crawl through but not large enough for coyotes, foxes and other predators. The holes are exactly small enough for these cats.
After I drilled holes for them to go freely in and out of their cat house. They quickly bolted out one by one and went away.
I even went out later that night and I could not seem to find any of them at all.
Or so it seemed.
I shined my lights and guess what I saw? When I thought that maybe they started running back to their previous owner, I saw four pairs of beady eyes staring at me from different locations. It was so cool. That meant they quickly got used to our property.
How to Adapt as Quickly as Possible
And if you want to get used to something — be it an idea or a habit. We have to force ourselves to be in a very different spot. Place yourself in an uncomfortable spot.
When it comes to systems, you have to force yourself to create those systems and let somebody else do them. Even if it is uncomfortable and you think you can do things better yourself.
You have to allow it and develop the ability to adapt quickly and be okay with the new situation or environment around us. Start with simple things like creating a system a day, and delegating processes to somebody one by one. And let people do it and help you no matter what.
The result you will see is a massive habit change. The more that you are able to put yourself in situations like that and adapt, the more you are going to grow. You are going to see that by doing this exercise, you change the entire environment surrounding you as you get used to it.
However, things are never perfect, and sometimes. Having Virtual Systems Architects on your team requires a lot of changes and a few customers simply refused to adapt. So, I had to cut them off as customers even if they were using two or three of our VSAs.
Now, those people who refused to adapt in a new situation as quickly as they can were the only ones who had a hard time getting positive results.
Conclusion
So, my challenge to you this week is if you want to change a habit, get into a different environment. Put yourself in a completely different environment where there is accountability and adapt as quickly as you can.
Resources and Links
If you like this episode, visit FreedomInFiveMinutes.com for more, and if you’re looking to hire your next Virtual Systems Architect, check out ProSulum.com for more details.
This has been Dean Soto of Freedom In Five Minutes Podcast and I will see you in the next Freedom In Five Minutes Podcast episode.