Changes_next_exitNaturalist Charles Darwin’s famous quote regarding stronger species and survival rates has been misrepresented for years.

What Darwin actually said was, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Believing his truism, Darwin would be a fantastic marketer in these changing times! Will you?

So how do you cope with marketing changes?

Well, while I was pounding down my 3rd cup of coffee this morning (my Keurig coffee maker rocks), I came up with 50 ways to cope with all of the marketing changes swirling around you and to help you survive and thrive in marketing:

  1. Face the facts – change will always be a constant throughout your life
  2. Pay attention to warning signs, study trends and read a tea leaf or two
  3. Strive to remain calm at all times
  4. Anticipate change – learn to take advantage of it
  5. Accept control – control your controllables – that means controlling YOU
  6. Read, study, put a plan of study in process, chart your course
  7. Think more
  8. Worry less
  9. Do more
  10. Create a “to don’t” list
  11. Clear your mind
  12. Clear your desk
  13. Work out
  14. Go for long walks
  15. Meditate
  16. Take long baths
  17. Sit in steam room
  18. Do deep breathing exercises
  19. Do progressive muscle relation techniques
  20. Embrace Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People
  21. Create good, positive reasons for change for your business (believe them)
  22. Create good, positive reasons for change for yourself (believe them)
  23. Think of yourself as an independent marketing assassin and that all of the changes taking place will only make you stronger and more valuable with more arrows in your quiver to deliver more success for your firm, your family and for yourself
  24. Get together with like-minded people to enable the changes you or management seeks
  25. Provide financial and emotional benefits when successful change goals are met
  26. Monitor your progress and celebrate achieving key milestones – small and large ones
  27. Make sure the people on your team share the same values
  28. Recognize that to get “there from here,” everyone may not get a seat on the bus
  29. Understand that your career and life is a marathon, not a sprint
  30. Understand that if you do not evolve you will dissolve
  31. Listen more
  32. Discuss more
  33. Be more open
  34. Join groups, chat rooms
  35. Read more
  36. Study more
  37. Create a plan of educational achievement
  38. Be a student of your profession
  39. Subscribe to online educational webinars, newsletters
  40. Be more in the present – don’t be so consumed with the future
  41. Don’t be consumed with having all of the right answers
  42. Be consumed with having all of the right questions
  43. Have fun discovering the answers
  44. Realize that you’re not perfect – you’ll never be
  45. Realize that you’re not an expert – you’ll never be
  46. Don’t give yourself unrealistic time periods to achieve your goals
  47. Don’t be unrealistic and give yourself too many goals to reach
  48. Focus on your desired outcomes, not just timelines and constraints
  49. Don’t be so hard on yourself
  50. Enjoy the ride realizing you’ve overcome past changes and you’ll succeed again

I’m sure there are more ways to cope with marketing changes, but I’m too busy to think of any more because of all of the changes going on around me!

Seriously, this list helps keep me grounded.

Hope it helps you too.