Tenacity + Adaptability = Strength (or Annoyance)!?!

"I live by two words: tenacity and gratitude." ~ Henry Winkler

Often tenacity is recognized and rewarded. Similarly, adaptability is considered admirable by many, and even an aspiration, for some.

When directly faced with challenges, tenacity and adaptability usually combine to equal strength. In those cases, tenacious, adaptable people find solutions and move through the situation to fresh ground and new opportunities.

When facing someone in a challenge or challenging situation, another person having tenacity and adaptability, especially when it comes to directly wanting to get another person to "talk about it", can become an annoyance.

How so?

The person/people in a challenging situation stick it out, continue with effort, and adapt to surprises and roadblocks with agility and pursuit, even when it is uncomfortable, time-consuming, and/or nearly exhausting. That dedication, that strength, is what powers them through to achieve.

When the person demonstrating tenacity and adaptability is utilizing those characteristics ON the challenged person by doing things such as: constantly inquiring "How are you?", or "How are you, REALLY?", making comparisons to their past or current situation as to state theirs is worse, talking about how horrible something is within the challenged person's situation, or even bragging about how great they are doing and wanting to "dig" into what's wrong with the challenged person, all totals to being an annoyance. While the person challenged is likely appreciative of the concern, they'd rather have support! The aforementioned approaches can come across insincere at worst, and simply intrusive at best. The tenacity to keep at it, and the adaptability in the way the person asking/telling as they approach the challenged person are unveiled as tedious attempts to expose what may or may not be there - things like complaints, frustration, or feeling sorry for oneself.

Look, we are all in sales, directly or indirectly, and we want to be tenacious with pursuing good fits for products and services, ideas and implementation. Still, we are also all human, and it is part of having tenacity and adaptability within humankind to demonstrate human kindness and resist the outreaches/annoyances demanding information and exchange, and replace them with the tenacity and adaptability of a friend or colleague who can put those on hold for the sake of supporting the situation without getting intrusive or demanding.

Let tenacity and adaptability combine to strengthen relationships when redirected to the kind approach of empathy, compassion, and action that does not pile on to those in a challenge. With that. you can assist in lifting the burden of the challenge rather than contributing to it...allowing the strength of tenacity and adaptability to convert your approach to engaging with those facing a challenge to be less annoying and more gratitude-invoking.

When you save your tenacious adaptability for real situations where resolution is being sought/requested by you, you, too, can demonstrate strength, and be recognized/appreciated for that combined strength, then!