Why are some people and organizations able to reinvent themselves, adapt and change, which others fade into irrelevance?

How can I be more adaptable, less fearful of change, and live a more truthful, meaningful life?

Big questions that I’m certainly not alone in asking, and I found both comfort and guidance in this week’s obscure recommended reading — John Gardner's slim and eminently readable, “Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society”

The prose is concise, well considered and amazingly quotable. Consider these beautiful pearls:

“By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”

“While the modern world has produced grounds for complaint, it has also produced the person doing the complaining.”

“The truly creative person is not an outlaw, but a lawmaker.”

“The moving waters are full of life and health; only in the still waters is stagnation and death.”

“Lives based on having are less free than lives based either or doing or on being.”

“We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation.”

Five out of five.

See this post on LinkedIn