CHANGE IS INEVITABLE, ADAPTATION IS NECESSARY

 (A Reflection on Growth, Failure, and Forward Motion)

As an artist, especially in this day and age, it’s impossible not to think about adaptation. So much is shifting around us… new technologies, changing trends, and the ever-growing presence of AI. Sometimes, it feels like I’m being pulled in every direction by my own work and skills. Every time I find a way forward, something changes again, and I’m right back to figuring it all out from scratch.

It can be exhausting, but it’s also the truth of growth. It never stops demanding movement.

There’s a quote by John C. Maxwell that says, “Fail fast, fail often, fail forward.” It sounds harsh at first, but I’ve come to see its beauty. The faster you allow yourself to fail, the quicker you learn, adapt, and grow. But that’s not how most of us were taught to see it. We were told that success means avoiding failure, not walking through it. We were taught to plan everything out perfectly before taking a step, but that’s not wisdom; it’s fear.

When you make decisions from fear, you’re not creating; you’re surviving. You’re trying to protect yourself instead of expressing yourself. And as someone who creates for a living, I’ve learned that survival and creation don’t thrive in the same space.

Adaptation, I’ve realized, means trusting movement, even when you don’t have the full picture. Sometimes you have to run before you can fly. You can’t wait for perfection to show up before you take the first step. Every phase of creation, every stage of life, is incomplete until you move. The only way to truly learn is by doing, by failing, adjusting, and doing again.

We often paralyze ourselves because we want to think everything through before we start. We want to avoid mistakes so badly that we forget mistakes are the only way to understand what needs fixing. The truth is, the answer often lies within the very problem we’re trying to avoid. What we call “failure” might just be calibration, our minds fine-tuning themselves for alignment.

Learning without practice is labor lost. Thinking without doing, without learning through the process, becomes paralyzing. I often realize this when I catch myself overanalyzing instead of acting. Thought without action builds walls, while action reveals the path. Every step forward, even a shaky one, lessens the power of fear.

If you want to solve a problem, act. Please don’t wait for clarity; create it. Overthinking drains your energy and builds resistance. But when you move, even in uncertainty, you turn that same energy into momentum. The hands begin to do what the mind fears.

Like I had mentioned in my previous blog post, ‘Transformation takes time. Even butterflies rest before they fly.’ You don’t see the movement happening inside the cocoon, but it’s there, quiet, consistent, necessary. The same is true for us. Adaptation doesn’t always look like progress; sometimes it’s simply learning to stay steady while everything shifts around you.

Adaptation, I’ve learned, is an act of faith. It’s the willingness to evolve while still unsure. So when life feels like it’s pressing you from all corners, don’t retreat. Adjust, learn, move, and trust that every detour is shaping your wings.

Because sometimes, you really do have to run before you can fly.