Last year, before the arrival of Covid, I submitted an idea for a series of articles to a professional journal and heard nothing. A little miffed by the silence I soon forgot about it until a couple of days ago when, out of the blue, I received an abject apology and serious interest in printing the articles.

EML’s research identifies Embracing Change as one of the key skills needed to make the most of living longer and central to that is ‘reacting positively’ to the unexpected. This simple example illustrates some of the different elements needed to react positively.

Emotional – On receiving the email I could have felt ‘righteous indignation’ and responded by saying they had missed their opportunity. I didn’t.

Organisational – having written the draft over a year ago I could have deleted it, or more likely, been unable to find it in the clutter – thank goodness for the ‘Search’ function!

Professional – since submitting the proposal the world has moved on and, to remain relevant, the draft article needs a little updating to embrace the changes that emerged from the pandemic. Keeping professional skills up to date facilitates editing.

Scheduling – central to embracing change is having enough diary time available to make time for the unexpected.

Embracing Change certainly needs a willingness to consider the change you encounter but, as you can see, there is more to it!