Today I want to cover the topic of “flexibility in communication”. Quite often we lack this quality, and yet by cultivating it, we can make our own life significantly easier. Starting from the most ancient historical documents, historians find information about great diplomats, people who influenced the course of history with the mere power of words.
Even the ancient book of wisdom, the Bible, says that the word can heal and wound as with a sword. In all cultures there are proverbs and sayings that are close in meaning, talking about the importance of keeping silent or saying something at the right time.
What does the ability to show flexibility when communicating with other people mean? Now the majority wants to express the idea that they are not going to change their opinion and are not going to adapt to someone. However, this is a misunderstanding of the designated concept. The ability to show flexibility implies that a person knows how to bypass “sharp corners,” contradictions, and obvious confrontations with an opponent, aiming for a positive outcome of negotiations that is mutually beneficial for both parties.
For example, riding public transport often causes great inconvenience for everyone involved. But when among the passengers, for example, there is a drunk with unbearable fumes, and even noisy, then patience can run out! How can you be flexible here? After all, you definitely don’t like a drunkard.
However, you can maintain your dignity without humiliating yourself to rude words and shouting. After all, this will not make the troublemaker embarrassed, but will only cause an acute conflict, unpleasant to everyone around him. In this situation, you can only afford a small, gentle remark (how you would like to be treated in this situation). Or perhaps the best way to restrain yourself is to simply remain silent.
How to be flexible in communication
- To become a flexible person, you need to be able to empathize with others. If you put yourself in the shoes of your opponent, try to feel everything that worries him, most likely, all your irritation will go away, even in the event of a major quarrel;
- Remembering that we are all human and have our weaknesses, find the strength to show mercy to others, recognizing their right to make mistakes;
- Give the other person the opportunity to always save face. Even if a person is fundamentally wrong, you can calmly explain to him the essence of his mistake. When he calms down and understands everything, most likely you will gain a friend or at least a supporter;
- Know how to admit when you are wrong. Often emotions blind us; under the influence of splashed out hormones, we are able to do and say things that we don’t even think about and don’t want to do. Know how to sincerely ask for forgiveness;
- Don't add fuel to the fire. When it is impossible to come to a common decision, it is best to calm down by postponing solving the problem for a while. Only a cool-headed approach opens up ways to resolve conflicts;
- Learn to forgive. In English, the root of the word "forgiveness" carries the meaning of forgetting. To forgive means to forever erase a wrongdoing from memory and never remember it again, much less reproach it;
- It happens that despite all the loyalty, a person continues to behave stubbornly and aggressively. You shouldn't stoop to his level. You can resolve the conflict and simply no longer contact this person;
- Often, when communicating with loved ones, we stop appreciating them, taking for granted everything they do for us. Because of this, irritation accumulates, people swear out of the blue. Learn to see every moment all the good in those around you, concentrate on their positive sides, and constantly thank them for every pleasant little thing. This is especially true in marriage. Try to treat your loved ones as if they could disappear from your life at any moment. After all, you want to keep them?
- However, flexibility in communication does not mean that you need to bend to everyone; on the contrary: set certain boundaries that you will never cross. People will know about this and will begin to respect your rules;
- Any constructive conversation can be compared to playing a ball: it can be thrown softly, making it easy to catch. Or you can throw it with all your might, hitting a person. Which game do you like best?
- Respect others. Contempt and arrogance are the main enemy of peace and prosperity. Don't exalt yourself or be overly proud. It is not for nothing that the Bible says that the humble conquers cities and countries, but the proud will be defeated. All people are drawn to someone who is able to show genuine concern;
- To achieve the desired outcome of negotiations, to obtain certain concessions and benefits for yourself, do not be afraid to give something away. After all, communication is always a mutually beneficial exchange that brings satisfaction and benefit to all parties to the negotiations.
A deep understanding of the essence of the issue will bring real peace to your life. Because flexibility in communication can work wonders. Use this powerful tool for interacting with others, and you will see how much more joyful and pleasant communication will become even with unpleasant people!
What is the difference between ordinary people and successful people? How to achieve what others only dream of? Successful people have one good trait that allows them to overcome all difficulties and difficulties on the path to their dreams.
“Be flexible. As soon as you stop being flexible, you die. Be flexible. This is a metal-forged and completely inflexible rule. The most flexible element gradually becomes the controlling element in the system." Italian proverb
The path to any goal will be strewn with difficulties and problems. And without the necessary skills and appropriate training, you cannot conquer the top of the mountain. Success always comes at a cost, but isn't the price of a dream worth it? What is one of the secrets of the success of the powers that be? In ability, he approaches the challenges of life more flexibly than ordinary people are used to doing.
The secret of successful people is their flexibility
Those who understand the concept of flexibility always achieve their goal. This goal could be work, money, fame, relationships, whatever.
The harm of stupid habits, inflexibility of thinking and monotony of actions of an ordinary person sometimes seems amazingly stupid.
Habits are sometimes destructive for the owner. A person may try to use the same methods that do not work at all. These are methods of studying, ways of meeting people on the street, an approach to work and a way of making money.
People stick to habits because they are inflexible, even though they have never worked. If you continue to do what you usually do, you will always get the same results as before.
American writer, philosopher and publicist Richard Bach said: “If you want to have something you’ve never had, start doing something you’ve never done.”
People work hard in a place where they will never achieve the financial wealth they need. People are in relationships with people who never make them happy. People live where they don't want to. People do things they hate every day.
American businessman, head and founder of the Internet company Amazon.com Jeff Bezos said: “If you are not stubborn enough, you will abandon the experiment very quickly. If you are not flexible enough, you will continue to bang your head against the wall, but will not find another way to solve the problem."
Ordinary people are terribly inflexible. They knock on one closed door, hoping that it will be opened for them. Others try to nail the wall with their foreheads. But sometimes you need to find a door that is not closed. There are always more promising options for solving a problem.
Stop sitting in your comfort zone, doing what you usually do and trying to wait for a miracle. There will be no miracle until you start changing your actions. If the method does not work, then improve it or change to another. Change your plans and actions to suit your goals. Be flexible in your actions, and especially in your thinking.
This world is ruled by those who are flexible. Successful people are very flexible. They achieve what they want by any means, rather than trying to act head-on. To be an inflexible dunce or a successful flexible person? The choice is simpler than ever...
Look again at Fig. 2. Those places where the Adult is connected with the Parent and Child can be called the joints of the soul. With good psychological flexibility, the relationships between these parts can easily change. If there is no psychological flexibility, the joints of the soul grow together (Fig. 8). The Parent and Child obscure the field of activity intended for the Adult. The Adult is then not engaged in productive activities, but fulfills the whims of the Child. There is no money, but the Parent demands a treat and a magnificent celebration. There is no real danger, but the Child requires extra effort for unnecessary protection. If an Adult is always busy with the affairs of the Parent (prejudices) or the Child (fears, illusions), he loses independence and ceases to understand what is happening in the outside world, and becomes a recorder of events. I understood everything, but I couldn’t help myself..."
Thus, the first task of a student of psychological struggle is to master the ability to remain in an adult position. What needs to be done for this? How to restore mobility in the joints of the soul? How to remain an objective adult? Thomas Haris advises to become sensitive to the signals of the Parent and Child, which work in automatic mode. Wait if in doubt. It is useful to program questions into the Adult: “Is this true?”, “Is this applicable?”, “Where did I get this idea?” When you are in a bad mood, ask why your Parent is beating your Child. It is necessary to set aside time to make serious decisions. You need to constantly train your Adult. You cannot learn navigation during a storm.
Another task is to bring your communication partner into an adult position. Most often you have to do this in your job, when you receive a categorical order from your boss to complete a task that is not possible. It usually goes along the R-D line. The first move is depreciation and then the business question is asked. At the same time, the communication partner’s thinking is stimulated and he becomes in the position of an Adult.
Chief: Do it immediately! (R-D).
Subordinate: Okay. (D-R). But as? (B-B).
Chief: Figure it out for yourself! What are you here for? (R-D).
Subordinate: If I could think like you, then I would be the boss, and you would be the subordinate. (D-R).
Usually, after two or three amortization moves (the Chief’s Child is not affected), the Parent’s energy is depleted, and since there is no new supply, the partner descends to the position of the Adult.
During a conversation, you should always look into the eyes of your partner - this is the position of an Adult; in extreme cases, upward, as if surrendering to mercy, - the position of a Child. Under no circumstances should you look down. This is the position of the attacking Parent.
Summary
Each of us has three self-states: Parent, Adult and Child.
The unit of communication is a transaction consisting of a stimulus and a response.
Transactions are parallel when the stimulus and response vectors coincide, and crossed when the vectors intersect. With parallel transactions, communication continues indefinitely (the first law of communication); with intersecting transactions, it stops and conflict develops (the second law of communication).
The principle of depreciation is based on the ability to determine the direction of the stimulus vector and give a response in the strictly opposite direction.
Business communication goes along the B-B line. To bring your partner into the position of an Adult, you must first agree and then ask a question.
Denis Diderot
One of the most important human qualities, and perhaps the most important, is thinking. It is thanks to his thinking that a person is able to solve the problems facing him and cope with the problems that arise. Thinking can be different. It can be logical, analytical, critical, abstract, creative and so on. And in particular, it can be flexible. This is a very useful kind of thinking. The more flexible a person’s thinking, the easier it is for him to live in this world. After all, how flexible a person’s mind is depends on his ability to adapt to absolutely any conditions and benefit from even the most unfavorable situations. If you look at successful people, you will see that they all, to one degree or another, have very good flexibility of thinking, which makes them incredibly effective and, one might even say, tenacious. So the flexibility of thinking that will be discussed in this article and which I will help you, dear readers, develop is a really, very useful skill for life. Read this article to the end, carefully and slowly, and I will teach you to think flexibly, after which you will be able to adapt to everything and benefit from everything.
What is mental flexibility?
First, let's figure out what exactly we are talking about when we talk about flexibility of thinking. This is very important to understand so as not to work on yourself blindly. Typically, flexibility of thinking refers to a person’s ability to switch from one thought to another, think about several things at the same time, use a creative approach when solving certain problems, as well as changing an algorithm to a fundamentally different one, changing the pattern of analysis and synthesis. All this is, of course, correct, but it is always necessary to determine the fundamental explanation of this or that phenomenon from which it grows in order to understand why a person is given this or that opportunity in general. So, as I was once taught and as I myself understood in the course of my life, dealing with different people, including quite successful people, flexibility of thinking is one of the manifestations of a person’s opportunistic and adaptive abilities. That is, flexibility of thinking is his ability to adjust, adjust, adapt, get out, using his creative abilities, the ability to go beyond patterns of thinking and behavior, the ability to think outside the box. In other words, flexibility of thinking, in its most primitive form, is the ability to survive using any methods. Well, when used correctly, this skill is also the ability to live. Therefore, it is not for nothing that they say - if you want to live, know how to spin, or you can also say - know how to bend and bend. Not everything in our life can always go the way we want, so we must be able to accept everything that life presents to us and must be able to live with it. And for this we need to perceive life from all acceptable points of view, and not just from one or several points of view that are most convenient and familiar to us. Therefore, I believe that flexibility of thinking is not just the ability to quickly look for new strategies for solving certain problems, it is, first of all, the ability to abandon one’s old views on something and accept new, more correct, more profitable, more relevant views. Thus, from this, from my point of view, more complete and accurate definition of such a concept as flexibility of thinking, you and I will proceed when considering the main ways of its development.
Why do you need flexibility of thinking?
As a matter of fact, the above definition of flexibility of thinking logically tells us the answer to the question of why we need this flexibility. However, to understand the importance of this skill, you should approach this issue separately. In the end, learning the ability to think flexibly will not be easy for you, friends, so you must understand for what benefits you should work hard in this matter. As I have seen many times in my life, including from my own experience, our body is capable of working miracles when we have an urgent need to demonstrate one or another of its capabilities. A person can hang onto the bridge railing for several hours without opening his hands until rescuers arrive and help him. After all, for him at this moment we are talking about life and death, and if a person has a need to survive, he will do everything in his power to stay alive, in any situation. And vice versa, a person can hang on the horizontal bar for no more than five minutes, after which he will unclasp his hands and fall, since he has no need to hang longer, because we are not talking about life and death, therefore his opportunities are limited, since their reserves are not used unless absolutely necessary. I am telling you this so that you understand that the benefit of one or another of our skills, one or another of our abilities and capabilities, we best understand only when our life begins to depend on them.
This is exactly how things stand with flexibility of thinking. To think flexibly, you need to need it, you need to awaken in yourself the need for such thinking, and not just learn how to do it and try to develop this skill in yourself. So what questions might there be? Why do you need to think flexibly? To have a better chance of survival, to have a better chance of getting what you want, to achieve bigger and better things in this world. That's why. Flexible thinking is not a luxury, it is a need that must be satisfied by every person who cares about himself. His life will depend on it. I have studied many sources on this issue, but most of them, unfortunately, say little about how to awaken in a person the need to think flexibly and think in general, how to make him have an urgent need for such thinking, thanks to which he will be able to use all the resources of his body to activate and subsequently develop such thinking. Wanting to study and learn is one thing, but experiencing an urgent need for what you learn is completely different. A person can learn anything in theory, and at the same time never apply the acquired knowledge and acquired skills in practice, because he will not have the need for this, at least from his point of view. Therefore, this need must be created. How to do it? With the right incentive or motivation. What do you want most now - to get rid of fear and pain or to have fun and achieve success? Or maybe both? Whatever you want, whatever you need, flexible thinking will help you achieve it.
How to develop flexibility of thinking
But now, being prepared and motivated, we will move on to the question of how to develop flexibility of thinking. Developing flexible thinking is not an easy process, but an interesting one. Since flexibility of thinking is, first of all, an opportunistic and adaptive skill, and in its depths an innate instinct that we develop as we learn vital skills, it is quite obvious that in order to activate it, it is necessary to create conditions in which we will urgently need this kind of thinking. It is advisable to start with this. Now let's think about what conditions these might be, situations in which we need to think quite flexibly? First of all, these are, of course, situations that are associated with our survival, when it comes to life and death, as well as situations when we really want to get something or achieve something. In such situations, our brain is especially active. Of course, you need to create such situations for yourself wisely, especially if these are situations in which life and death are at stake, because risking your life to create the need for flexible thinking is undesirable, it is too dangerous, but you can and should bring your consciousness closer to them . For example, in order to show flexibility of thinking in order to find ways to make money, it will be useful to sit hungry for a couple of days, then the brain will begin to work more actively on solving the problem facing it, and as life shows, it can find very unusual solutions that a person on a full stomach can think of I didn't even realize it.
The problem, however, is that in such a state, when it comes to life and death, a person is often inclined to make decisions that are not entirely reasonable, although effective. For example, he may decide to commit a crime, say, theft, in order to get money. There is not much flexibility here, although we may be talking about a very sophisticated crime, for the commission of which several non-standard decisions will need to be made. Flexibility of thinking helps us survive, and does not endanger our lives and our health. So you need to be able to find a middle ground between common sense and those emotions that accompany our desire to satisfy our instinctual needs. When a person's life is threatened, he is, of course, prone to flexible thinking, but at the same time, his state of despair, if he falls into it, can cause him to lose control over himself, as a result of which he can do stupid things. Therefore, putting yourself in a position where you urgently need to make a very complex and important decision, and at the same time a non-standard one, you should remain calm and reasonable, for which you need to prepare yourself in advance for such situations, using their simulation.
I recommend that you use your imagination and artificially immerse yourself in a state of danger when it comes to life and death, and while in this state, brainstorm the problem facing you. Only this will be an assault organized by you, without the help of other people. How to organize this assault will be discussed below. In addition to the state of life and death, some desire of yours can also contribute to awakening the need for flexible thinking - if it is very strong. However, as life shows, a person’s desire may not always be so strong that he is ready to use all the resources of his body for it, so I am still inclined to the need to turn first of all to the instinct of self-preservation, and in particular to fear, to awaken the need for flexible thinking. Still, it is the instinct of self-preservation that is the basic human instinct. Therefore, when we put ourselves, even in our thoughts, in a difficult situation, when it comes to life and death, our capabilities increase greatly, which contributes to the activation of our thinking, including flexible thinking, the flexibility of which is determined by how many ways We can find solutions to the problem that has arisen.
It is just important not to drive yourself into too much fear, because it suppresses a person’s creative abilities, which are also necessary for flexible thinking. You cannot intimidate yourself too much, otherwise you can become not so much flexible as weak-willed and apathetic. A person should always remain moderately aggressive so that his desires to leave something and to come to something are in harmony with each other. Both fear and desire are two sides of the same coin - both of these stimuli encourage us to be active, both mental and physical. There must always be a golden mean between fear and desire, when a person maintains hope for the best, when he looks for opportunities, knowing that they exist, when he thinks flexibly, not to the detriment of his Self, and when he thinks at all, and does not completely subjugate himself the will of other people and circumstances. I attach great importance to this knowledge, because I know how difficult it is to make a person think - to look for options, to invent, to adapt, when there are other, simpler and more obvious solutions that he can use. It’s easy to think straight, but bending, looking for different ways to get out of a difficult situation or looking for different ways to achieve your goal is difficult. Therefore, without a good incentive or motivation, it is difficult for a person to do this. That's why I refer to fear, because I know that for most people it is the most powerful motivator. But when plunging yourself into a state of fear and despair, in order to activate your hidden capabilities, do not lose hope for the best and faith in yourself. Now, let's talk about how else you can develop the flexibility of your thinking, and let's start with the method I have already proposed - brainstorming.
Brainstorm
So, suppose you are faced with some kind of problem, task, and you need to solve it. The question immediately arises: how many ways are there to solve it? If you see only one way to solve it, then this is not serious, because for every problem and task there are several ways to solve it. And the more such ways you find, the better. To develop flexibility of thinking - always, I emphasize, always - you need to find several options for solving the task or problem facing you, even when there is one good, correct solution and it completely suits you. Even in this case, you need to at least think about what other options there may be to solve your task or problem. In a word, you should always have a choice of how to solve this or that problem, how to cope with this or that problem, how to act in this or that situation, how to explain this or that phenomenon. Look for these options, come up with these options, learn about these options from books and from other people, but never settle for having one single solution, one single answer, one single explanation for something. To make thinking flexible, it needs to be expanded so that it can rotate 360 degrees around this or that problem, this or that task. And brainstorming allows us to do this perfectly - with its help we expand our thinking, with its help we include new things into the sphere of our concepts that we usually don’t think about due to our reluctance to think.
Just speaking about brainstorming, I’m not talking about the process in which a team of people generates ideas, but about the process when only you generate and not only generate, but also look for new ideas, options, ways to solve a particular problem. You yourself attack your problem, trying to look at it from a variety of points of view, and all third-party information resources, including other people, are your assistants. Thus, brainstorming, in our case, is the process of you searching for different ways to solve a particular problem, this is your search for several options for actions that you can perform in a given situation. You are offering this to yourself. Write down these sentences on paper to clearly see how many approaches there are to a particular problem, situation, or phenomenon. The more options you see, the broader your thinking will be, which means there will be room for it to bend. Constantly apply this approach to solve various problems in your daily life. Train your thinking flexibility in this way. If you can’t do something one way, look for and try another, third, fourth, until you find the right solution, or one might say, a working option. Therefore, do not give up, show character so that your thinking becomes flexible - it must be subject to pressure, and for this you need to make mental efforts in solving different problems in different ways.
Be sure to make it a rule for yourself to always look for several options for solving the problem you are facing, look for several solutions to the problem you have, have several opinions about something or someone, and so on. This principle contradicts our standard education, because we are often taught that there is only one correct solution to a given problem - there is only one correct opinion and it is not subject to discussion. This approach to learning harms a person’s creativity, harms his thinking, does not allow a person to think flexibly, does not allow him to act outside the box and, more importantly, independently. Therefore, move away from this practice - have the audacity to doubt the correctness of one single answer, one single opinion, no matter who it belongs to, one single solution to a particular problem, and always offer your answers, solutions, options, your opinion. At least offer them to yourself. At a minimum, always allow for the possibility of other opinions, other answers, other solutions - find or invent them in order to always have a broader horizon and think flexibly. Training flexibility of thinking here will be the process of searching for something new, or something additional to what you already know. Look for something new in everything, and come up with something new, then your thinking will not be stereotyped and straightforward, it will be flexible and resourceful.
Perseverance
Flexible thinking requires perseverance and perseverance from a person, it requires character and patience from him, which I already mentioned above, but not stubbornness. Stubbornness is when a person tries to break through a jamb or wall with his forehead, and perseverance, perseverance, patience and character help a person not to give up and look for a solution to the problem facing him in different ways. Why do some people act in a straightforward manner—a rod like a tank—instead of acting subtly, relying on flexible thinking, avoiding obstacles rather than running into them? The thing is that straightforward, stubborn people are lazy to think, they don’t want to strain themselves, so they act according to a template, according to a previously worked out and learned method, even if the situation is new and requires a different approach. Laziness prevents people from thinking flexibly, because flexible thinking is not a static phenomenon, like a template and stereotype - it is a process, it is work, it is a search, it is tension, it is the consumption of the body's resources. A person who is not persistent, looking for simple and easy ways to solve certain problems, deprives himself of the opportunity to think flexibly, for the simple reason that he does not want to think at all. After all, thinking is hard, it is complicated, it is very difficult work that requires large energy resources, while the automaticity of actions, and, consequently, their straightforwardness, do not require a lot of stress from a person, they do not require the use of large energy resources.
Some people would rather work hard all day long to earn a living, rather than use their brains to come up with something to simplify and improve their lives. And many people don’t even want to think in such a way that smoke comes out of their ears. This is our nature. Laziness is often our worst enemy. And when we are faced with a difficult task, we need to think exactly like this - intensively, broadly, creatively, persistently going through a lot of options for solving this problem. Therefore, we must be persistent to force ourselves to think flexibly. When we develop persistence in ourselves, through the continuous search for a solution to the problem or task facing us using different methods - we suppress laziness in ourselves - we inspire ourselves that what we are doing is important, vital, we convince our brain that that the work we do is vital. And then he gives us the energy resources necessary to solve a particular problem. And already using these resources, we think, including flexibly, that is, we look for different ways to solve this or that problem, compare these methods with each other, and then apply the most optimal method. Therefore - be persistent - look for something - a solution, an answer, a way out, until you find it, invent until you figure it out, decide until you decide. Don’t be lazy and don’t give up, fight - train your brain to finish the things you start, and not give up and find easy solutions, with, as a rule, dire consequences.
Improvisation
The ability to improvise naturally makes thinking flexible. And in order to improvise, you need to take a creative and at the same time critical approach to any type of activity, to your behavior, to your views on life, to your actions. Creativity originates from a person’s feeling of freedom, when he is not constrained by any framework, any rules, any laws or restrictions. And criticality makes us doubt the inviolability of existing truths; it requires from us audacity and self-confidence, and sometimes banal ignorance, in order to look for new solutions to old problems. If we don’t know that something is impossible to do there, we will have the opportunity to do the impossible. This is, in essence, a person’s worldview - the ability to feel free and believe in one’s own strength. To do this, friends, you need to give up everything that limits you. First of all, these are all kinds of attitudes that have been stuffed into our heads since childhood, and the essence of which boils down to statements such as: “You can’t!” and “Wrong!”, and which force us to think within the limits of what is permissible. On the one hand, it is good to discipline your thinking in a certain way, but this discipline should be done in moderation. Indeed, in this world there are laws, both human and natural, that are extremely undesirable to break. There are rules, following which, you can achieve the desired result, there are ruts, moving along which we will arrive at the intended goal, in the vast majority of cases. But, you need to be able to abstract from all this and develop creative thinking, giving your imagination the opportunity to find something new when the situation requires it.
Therefore, dream - allow yourself to give birth to the most unusual images that do not exist in nature, come up with your own laws, your own rules, your own worlds. Forget about all the restrictions and rules, if you are told that 2+2=4, then change this law in your imagination, let you have other options when: 2+2=5, 7, 20, 100 and so on. Forget that something is impossible - accept the possibility of everything you want to see, everything that can only appear in your imagination. Your imagination should be wild, then your creative thinking will begin to develop, and with it the ability to improvise, which means you will develop the ability to think flexibly in yourself, and you will be able to use it when you need it. After all, sometimes straightforwardness comes down to a person’s inability to imagine a different way out of a situation, a different way of solving a particular problem, a different explanation for what he sees, hears, feels. A person, even in his thoughts, does not admit the possibility of the existence of something other than what he knows, what he has an idea about, what he is used to. That is why he cannot be flexible - he simply has nowhere to bend, he is surrounded by artificially created impenetrable walls in his mind that limit his thinking abilities. So he acts according to pre-known patterns, according to the rules that he has been trained in, without being able to improvise, due to the limitations of his imagination, or even due to the lack of it altogether.
Therefore, I advise you to always look for non-standard, even if not solutions, but approaches to something old and well-known. Become a researcher - look for something new in the old, look for something new in yourself, try to think in ways you’ve never thought before, and to do this, don’t think so much as come up with something new, new solutions, new approaches, new views, new explanations. Fantasize, don’t be afraid of your fantasies, create something of your own - draw, invent, imagine, come up with unusual stories, unusual situations, unusual actions, both yours and those of others. Let your inner world become saturated with different images, different ideas, different situations. Surprise yourself with your own fantasies, engage in so-called mental perversion, combining the information you have in such a way that something new comes out of it. Then your brain will have a wider field for activity and it will have something to bend over, something to build on in those situations when the rules we know stop working, when you need to act according to the situation, and not according to ready-made templates, not the old fashioned way.
Feelings and intuition
Feelings and intuition often tell us, if not the correct solution to a particular problem or task, in the form of an algorithm, then at least the danger or benefit of a particular solution. In general, intuition constantly tells us something and we always experience feelings that tell us something, suggest something to us. We just don’t always hear them and we can’t always understand their clues, so we don’t always have to rely on intuition and feelings. And yet, if you listen to your feelings, then you can make non-standard decisions that sometimes defy any logic, which nevertheless turn out to be very correct and will lead us to a favorable result. Of course, you can’t completely trust your feelings and intuition, it’s too reckless, but you always need to listen to them and take their signals into account. That is, you need to listen to your inner voice in order to have a more complete understanding of something or someone. Sometimes you look at a person and you don’t like him, you just don’t like him. You can’t understand why you don’t like him, what’s wrong with him, but you don’t like him and that’s it. And you don’t cooperate with him, you avoid him, without really understanding why. And then you start to find out who he is, and please, it turns out that he is a swindler, a deceiver, a scoundrel, or simply an unreliable, or even a very dangerous person. Thus, intuition can tell the mind that you need to check a person, you need to find out more about him, you need to study him better, and only then make your decision regarding him. This allows you to think broadly, deeply, and flexibly, which is especially important in situations where we make fateful decisions in our lives. I rarely trust my feelings and intuition to the fullest, but at the same time I try to always listen to them, especially in those cases when I don’t have the opportunity to think everything through thoroughly, I don’t have time to check everything. And sometimes feelings allow me to act unconventionally, in a situation where, in order to achieve a positive result in a particular matter, a person’s behavior must be spontaneous, but adequate.
Thinking process
Now I would like to introduce you to the thought process that I myself adhere to when making various kinds of decisions and when solving certain problems and tasks. This process, or one might also say, the principle of thinking, although it rests on a certain order, on certain rules of thinking that must be followed to achieve the desired result, still allows a person to think quite freely and therefore flexibly, by providing him with useful thinking tools , in the form of these very rules. We need to understand in which direction our thinking can move, skirting certain obstacles and how it should move in order to be productive and effective.
So, before making a final decision and taking action, you need to do the following mental work:
1. When faced with any problem or task, it is necessary to correctly formulate this problem or task, that is, to determine its essence as accurately as possible. The more specific this formulation is, the better, the clearer the problem or task will be. As a matter of fact, a well-formulated problem, a task, is already half solved.
2. Collection of all the necessary information that is needed for further work with the problem, task, as well as for analyzing and assessing the situation as a whole. Therefore, it is necessary to collect all possible information on it from all available sources. The more information is collected, the better, the easier it will be to work with the problem, understanding what exactly it is and what ways to solve it exist.
3. Analysis of the problem, situation. It is quite obvious that in order to understand what exactly a person is dealing with, what exactly he is faced with, he needs to analyze his problem, task, the situation in which he finds himself, as well as the information that he managed to collect. That is, he needs to comprehensively study both the components of the problem or task facing him, as well as study the pattern of a particular situation, and in general, approach the study of this problem, task, situation from different angles. The more information a person collects about the situation he is faced with, and the more detailed he studies this information, the more accurate his understanding of this situation will be and the more correct his decision regarding it will be. You just need to competently evaluate all the collected information in order to draw the right conclusion from it to make the right decision. Therefore, a qualitative analysis of this information is the key to its correct understanding.
4. Based on the analysis, it is necessary to assess the situation, situation, problem, task in order to understand how complex, relevant, necessary, and inevitable it is for you. Sometimes people see a problem in something that doesn't exist. They can clearly formulate their problem, describe all its subtleties, point out its origins and consequences, analyze it thoroughly, breaking it down into its component parts, but at the same time, they lose attention to other problems that are more relevant to them. That is, they do not conduct a broad analysis of the entire situation in which they find themselves and in which this or that problem arose, therefore they cannot objectively assess it. For example, one may be afraid of terrorism because the media constantly scare us with it, while for the average citizen, a much greater danger may be posed by, for example, corruption, lawlessness, the unsettled situation in his own city, poor-quality medicine and a number of others. more serious and more relevant problems for him, representing a much greater danger than terrorism. Therefore, without a correct assessment of the situation, situation, problem, you can pay attention to lower priority, but more pretentious and inflated by the media things and spend your time and energy on solving or simply thinking about non-primary problems, while ignoring more important problems. Therefore, it is imperative to understand this issue before moving on to specific actions. And in order to give a competent assessment of your problem, situation, you need to look at it as broadly as possible, abstracting from it. To do this, you need to imagine another person in this situation and look from the outside at his (your) problem and analyze it from this point of view. Then your assessment of your problem, situation, will be more objective.
5. Having assessed the problem, task, situation and finally decided for yourself that it is important, paramount and requires a quick decision, to the detriment of other tasks and problems, it is necessary to determine priority directions for solving this problem, task, or possible ways out of a certain situation, in which you find yourself. Here, as I said above, it is necessary to find several directions, this is very important. And even if there are obvious, conspicuous decisions that you want to make automatically and immediately begin to take action, there is no need to rush, you need to think about alternative solutions, which also always exist and must be found and taken into account. People are often deceived precisely in those situations when they are presented with incorrect, but superficially very correct and sometimes the only correct decisions, thus confusing them and not giving them the opportunity to consider other options. The human mind is lazy, so it looks for simple and easy solutions, and when it sees them, it is not very critical of them, preferring to immediately use them instead of considering other options. Therefore, there is no need to rush; too simple and obvious solutions are often fraught with danger, for these are mirages that a person sees because he wants to see and in which he believes because he wants to believe. You should always consider other options and choose the smartest one, not the easiest one.
6. Having found various options, having identified several directions for solving the problem or task facing you, be sure to analyze each of these solutions, options and directions separately. Here, an important role is played by comparing each of the options for solving a particular problem with each other, and most importantly, comparing the possible results of a particular solution with each other. When a person thinks flexibly, he chooses, he always has a choice - what is the best thing to do, how to correctly solve a problem, which option is better, more correct, more effective and why. This choice allows you to avoid unnecessary mistakes, losses, failures, typical of those people who do not know how to think flexibly, but grab onto the first more or less attractive solution to their problem. And most importantly, having a choice, we get the opportunity to adapt to what we cannot adapt to ourselves.
7. Forecast. In continuation of the previous paragraph, I would like to clarify that an important role in choosing the direction for solving a particular problem or task is played by a competent forecast of the consequences of this decision. In particular, before taking action, it is necessary to assume, at least in general terms, what the consequences of these actions may lead to. This is not an easy task; forecasts do not always come true, and even with high accuracy. But in some situations they are very useful, as they allow a person to avoid obvious mistakes. It is useful for this purpose to study other people’s experiences in similar situations, because in this world most situations are very similar to each other, as are the ways to solve the problems that arise in these situations. And in general, nothing is new under the sun, and if you know history well, studying the experience of others, then you can use it to understand the present well and predict the future with a high degree of accuracy. Therefore, the experience of others, the experience of history, is invaluable for predicting the consequences of certain decisions.
8. Generate as many ideas as possible. This is a more detailed approach to finding options for solving a problem or task facing a person, taking into account all the pros and cons of each specific solution, as well as taking into account the consequences that each decision can lead to. An idea in this case is a kind of scheme or plan for solving a particular problem or task. And to develop flexibility of thinking, as I already said, there should be a lot of such ideas. Put forward ideas, the more the better, it is important to consider the task or problem facing you as broadly as possible, so that you have something to work with, have plenty to choose from, have room to bend your thinking. A large number of ideas speaks about the good flexibility of a person’s thinking, based on his creative abilities and his ability to competently assess the situation in which he finds himself, the problem he is faced with, the task he needs to solve.
9. Evaluate all the ideas and select the best ones to work with later. After all possible ideas have been put forward, they need to be analyzed, each individually, evaluated, and then the best one selected. Again, assessing the consequences of implementing each specific idea, based on the study of other people's experience or one's own logical reasoning, is decisive when choosing the best idea. There are other criteria for selecting the right ideas; they are different for each specific situation, including the intuition I mentioned above that can be used for this purpose. But the most important thing is not to choose an unreasonable idea. You can’t just say that this idea is very interesting, I like it, so I need to try to implement it. This is called pointing your finger at the sky, hoping for luck. It is necessary to justify the correctness of the chosen idea before proceeding with its implementation. And the more evidence there is to support it, the better.
10. Development of an action plan. Planning is a very important type of activity, necessary for the implementation of various types of tasks and for the implementation of various ideas. Above, I wrote about the importance of being able to improvise, in order to be as flexible as possible in your behavior, in order to be able to make quick decisions that are adequate to reality, in order to act according to the situation and not out of habit. But when solving most very complex tasks or problems, it is extremely important to be able to plan, because spontaneous actions have a limited range of possibilities and take into account a limited set of consequences from certain actions. In other words, when improvising, we think tactically, and when planning, we think strategically. And by doing both in the right sequence [first strategy, then tactics] – we think flexibly. That is, it is possible and necessary to draw up an action plan for the implementation of the chosen idea, before starting these actions, and then, in the process of implementing this plan, act according to the situation, that is, take small, and even large, if you will need amendments to it, taking into account the current situation, so as not to make obvious mistakes that move you away from the result you need. In other words, tactical tricks are necessary in any case, but the general vector of the goal, according to the plan, cannot be changed, otherwise the set goal cannot be achieved, unless, as this plan is implemented, it, for one reason or another, ceases to be relevant. Or the goal itself will not cease to be relevant.
11. Implementation of actions is the logical conclusion of the thought process. Actually, all the above points are meaningless if a person ultimately does not take action. Any idea requires implementation. A person is required to take step-by-step, thoughtful actions, by which it will be clear to what extent the theoretical conclusions turned out to be correct, and thanks to which the result the person needs will be achieved.
This is the thought process, as well as the order of actions, that must be taken by a person who is going to solve a particular problem or task, using his thinking for this. Flexibility of thinking is determined precisely by the entire structure presented above, which allows a person to act not thoughtlessly and straightforwardly, but competently and thoughtfully, taking into account all the features of his situation. Straightforward, inflexible, non-thinking people do not carry out such operations in their heads. They act according to a pattern, and often according to a single one, well known to them. A person with flexible thinking always looks at everything from different angles and takes into account his real capabilities, therefore he acts according to an algorithm that is most adequate to the situation. I myself am also guided by the principle of thinking presented above when solving various kinds of problems, so I am ready to confirm its effectiveness with my own life experience. Now let's see what other techniques for developing flexibility of thinking exist.
Striving for something new
I myself strictly follow this principle. The desire for something new forces us to constantly adjust and adapt to something, so our adaptive and adaptive skills are not lost in the process of life, but rather develop. And our thinking remains alive and flexible, and does not ossify. It is with our adaptive and adaptive abilities that flexible thinking is connected. Habit is the enemy of flexible thinking, and I believe it is the enemy of thinking in general, as such. When a person gets used to acting in the same way, he deprives himself of the opportunity to think, because he has no need for it. But when he constantly encounters something new, he has to, at a minimum, remain vigilant in order to take into account the changes and adapt his behavior to them, and, at maximum, look for solutions to new problems, change himself and his behavior. I believe that from all these diseases of the mind - senile insanity, or Alzheimer's disease, which in essence is almost the same thing, it is the desire for something new, and therefore the constant solution of new problems, that perfectly protects a person. Here we are not only talking about flexibility of thinking, but also about maintaining sanity.
Try to constantly change something in your life - work, hobbies, ways of solving different problems, the routes you usually take, the operating system on your computer, the arrangement of furniture in the house, relaxation, and so on and so forth. Change everything that can be changed. Force your brain to constantly change your picture of the world, force it to think before doing something, and not just act automatically, unconsciously. And when you find yourself in a situation that requires you to have a flexible approach to the task or problem facing you in order to solve it, you will already be ready for this, your brain will be ready for it.
Rejection of all principles of thinking
Above, I showed one of the principles of thinking [perhaps the most common], which is necessary for making the most correct decisions, thereby showing what the thought process can be in the head of a person who wants to make the right decision. But sometimes, in order to develop the flexibility of thought processes, it is necessary to abandon all principles, all rules, all thought processes and make decisions based on the situation, reacting to its every change in real time. But for this, it is necessary to feel these changes, it is necessary, as mentioned above, to listen to your intuition, to be able to notice details that tell a person what is the best thing to do. Vigilance and observation in this case begin to play a major role, as does intuition. Some people I've talked to on this topic have told me that they manage to think in real time - without adhering to any rules at all, abandoning all principles of thinking, not planning anything, but only subtly sensing the situation and adapting to it. They say that Napoleon thought the same way, which is why he won victories in many battles. To be honest, I don’t think so. My flexibility of thinking is more related to the thought process that I described above, where I, so to speak, look for a loophole that I can penetrate to solve the problem in front of me, relying on past experience and my logic. Or, in computer parlance, I'm looking for a way to hack a problem by finding its weak spot and through that spot, step by step, solving the minor sub-problems that make up the problem, to consistently solve the entire problem. Therefore, I can’t tell you anything special about the intuitive way of thinking yet. I myself do not use it - I trust my calculations, my creative abilities, my imagination, my logic, bending my thinking with their help. But if you find the opportunity to act intuitively, according to the situation, then you can develop the flexibility of your thinking in this way. Each person has his own characteristics, as I have seen many times, so everyone finds their own strong point.
Knowledge
Knowledge has always been power, because thanks to it we expand our horizons, learn the laws of the universe, form our own picture of the world with its help and, of course, use it to solve various problems and tasks. Of course, flexibility of thinking and knowledge also help to develop, since with their help we expand the range of our capabilities, learning about new methods of achieving certain goals. Above we discussed the flexibility of thinking from the position of a creative approach to solving various kinds of problems and tasks. And if we talk about the flexibility of thinking from the position of combinatorics, when a person’s thinking is flexible exactly as much as the more combinations of actions he knows, and for this it is necessary to have extensive knowledge in different fields, then it turns out that the more we know, the more flexible we think. True, there is a small nuance here, in terms of the fact that a person must have well-developed logic, imagination, critical thinking, so that he can, firstly, correctly analyze the knowledge he receives and already has, and secondly, skillfully operate them and apply them competently, and not just have them in his head as a set of different templates, the meaning of which he does not understand. But in general, for flexibility of thinking and for an adequate perception of reality, the need to acquire knowledge throughout your life - read books, communicate with smart people, attend all kinds of seminars, lectures, any other forms of intellectual leisure in order to constantly replenish your database with new knowledge .
In principle, there is nothing more to add here - the more we know, the more ideas and possibilities based on them we operate, the more options and combinations we can use to solve certain problems facing us. The speed of sorting through these options plays an important role here, for which you need to do various exercises with it. For example, this: You need to find a variety of uses for, say, a paper clip or a pencil within a short period of time, or find as many ways as possible to dry laundry, and so on. In general, tasks can be simple, complex and extremely difficult, when you had to think so that your head simply swells. At the same time, you can offer something as solutions, based on your knowledge, and you can come up with something yourself, creating new cells of information in your head, based on the knowledge you already have. Thus, knowledge contributes to the development of not only flexibility of thinking, but also thinking in general. Gain knowledge and then use different combinations of this knowledge to solve different kinds of problems. Bend in this way in all directions known to you in order to achieve the result you need.
Ability to lose
This is a very important skill that I myself spent a very long time learning. We are talking about the need for a person to accept failure in any matter, but not accepting it as such, but in the context of those actions with which he tried to do this thing, or those actions with which he tried to solve this or that problem . By accepting this failure, a person agrees that he was wrong and is looking for another option for solving the problem facing him, looking for a different way to do the job he needs. And if his pride interferes with this, he will push with the horn until he breaks either the horn or what he rested it on. There are situations in life when you can’t do without flexibility of thinking, namely, it is impossible to solve the problem facing you, or do the thing you need, in a way that is known to you and is absolutely correct.
An example is working as a psychologist. Sometimes a psychologist comes across people who have beliefs about something so ingrained in their heads that no logic, no common sense is able to convince them. At the same time, to rid these people of neuroses, exactly this approach is required, that is, it is necessary to change a person’s worldview so that he stops seeing a problem in something that does not exist and suffering from it. Well, people don’t want to accept logic, they don’t want to think sensibly, but the problem needs to be solved. The psychologist must accept this state of affairs and not insist on his own; he must agree that his method, no matter how correct it is, does not work. This can be called a defeat that must be accepted. Only this is a defeat in a battle, but not in a war. Therefore, the psychologist must find another solution, another method with which he will influence the person, that is, he must show flexibility of thinking in order to help the person. And such a method is suggestion, thanks to which you can replace a person’s beliefs with other beliefs, and thus achieve your goal and win the war, that is, solve the problem of the patient, client. That's why I say that you need to be able to lose - you need to accept the idea that it is impossible to solve the problem in this way, even if you crack it. You need another solution, and you need to look for it in order to ultimately achieve the result you need. Those who do not like to lose, who do not think flexibly and cannot turn away from the chosen path, even if it leads them to a dead end, fail. Give up pride, the obviousness of the obvious and accept defeat, and then start a new battle - using a new method.
Calming emotions
It is quite obvious that emotions prevent a person from thinking, including thinking flexibly, since they force him to act quickly, thoughtlessly, instinctively or according to a pattern. Therefore, sometimes people make simple, straightforward, easy and often erroneous decisions, especially in difficult situations, in complex matters, when they are overwhelmed by emotions. Thinking is a process, and in order to start it, you need to set a goal - to solve some problem, and you also need to ask questions that trigger this process. Emotions interfere with this, because they force us to find simple, obvious, stereotyped and often incorrect answers to any questions. Therefore, the less a person experiences emotions, the easier it is for him to think flexibly, because in this case he can and is looking for a solution that is effective, practical, competent and, if necessary, then unusual and non-standard. When a person thinks, he looks for answers to the questions he has and critically evaluates them, rather than snatching the first answers he comes across from memory or from external sources, without at all assessing their correctness and quality.
Questions
So, in order to generally start the thinking process, you need to start asking yourself various questions. Basically these are questions like: Why? How? For what? Who? What? Where? When? Where? And others. You can ask more clarifying questions, depending on what is being discussed. And you need to ask them, if possible, to everyone, but most importantly, to yourself. You must ask yourself such questions, always and everywhere. Then your thinking will work actively, including good flexibility, because the question forces you to look for an answer, and there can be many answers to any question, both right and wrong. Thus, a person prepares himself for mental work. Let's say a situation arises in your life when you don't even know what you should do, how best to act. And this situation can unsettle you, it can cause negative emotions in you that will begin to push you to a decision that is wrong for you. So, don’t panic - start asking yourself the above questions - use them to shake your thinking, accelerate and bend it, let it work, let it look for answers for you. Flexibility of thinking is possible when the brain is turned on and actively working, and when it is asleep, preferring to be content with template decisions and giving all its energy to emotions, it is impossible to think flexibly, and in general it is impossible to think at all. You don’t have to tell yourself - I know, you have to tell yourself - I want to find out. And in order to find out something, you need to ask yourself a question - one or more of the above. The more questions you ask yourself, the more answers you will find. And the more answers you have, the richer your choice will become. This choice will allow your thinking to bend in a variety of directions.
Set ambitious goals for yourself
As I already wrote at the very beginning - in order to make your thinking flexible, you must have a need for it, that is, you need to put yourself in such conditions when you understand not only at the level of consciousness that you need to think flexibly and will strive for this, but also when your brain understands this at the subconscious level, when already at the level of your genes the need for flexible thinking will be acutely felt. Above we talked about fear as a very powerful stimulus that forces a person to move his brain, and now let’s talk about aggression, which is also very good at motivating a person to take active action. You need to turn on your instinct of a hunter, a conqueror, an aggressor, seeking to achieve his goal at any cost. And for this, you need to set very ambitious goals for yourself and begin to strive for them with all your might. You even need to take risks in some situations, thus forcing your body to activate all its internal reserves. Only the risk must be deliberate and justified, within the limits of common sense. The main thing is to look for an opportunity to take an impregnable fortress, that is, to achieve your ambitious goal. Your brain will work very actively while your eyes are burning, while you are hungry for big victories. So, within reasonable limits, keep yourself under tension so that you have a constant need for thinking, including flexible thinking. When everything is good for a person, both from his point of view and in general, he relaxes, stops first thinking, and then doing something. What kind of flexibility of thinking can we talk about then? After all, if there is no use for it, then it will not be turned on. Therefore, you need to keep yourself on your toes, you need to be aggressive, purposeful, active, persistent in order to think quickly, efficiently and flexibly.
Ability to adapt
As you know, in this world the fittest survive, and in order to be able to adapt to everything that you can adapt to, you need to be able to think flexibly. I have already written about this and I would like to end this article with this thought. One of the laws of nature tells us - whoever is stronger is right. The strong decides what will be arranged and how, by what rules everyone else who is weaker will live. And those who do not agree with this are punished and destroyed. In everyday life, people, unfortunately, often forget about this, and therefore are punished by those more powerful for their unreasonable demands and excessive ambitions. Some people are given difficult living conditions, some are thrown into prison, some are liquidated, some are fired from their jobs, and so on. Justice, in the usual understanding of it by most people, does not exist, there is only the right of the strong. Therefore, in order to survive, to adapt, you need to be cunning and be able to adapt to stronger people, or to the opinion of the majority, when necessary. This is one of the ways to face the threat, and one of the ways to achieve success in this world.
If you cannot cope with something and change something, adapt to it. Accept circumstances and other people as they are, find a way to live with them. There is no need to be indignant, rebel, openly criticize those who do not suit you, but with whom you cannot cope - there is no need to get into trouble. This is stupid and dangerous. The way of a cunning person is the ability to adapt. A cunning, flexible-minded person always tries to play on the side of the strong, instead of opposing him. He can betray, he can set up, he can be helpful and obsequious, he can easily change his political, social, cultural, ethnic, religious and other orientation in order to become one of his own for those who are stronger, in order to become one of his own for that person, that society , that group of people on whose side it is beneficial to be. Forget about pride when, in order to survive or to move up, you need to cave in, give in, remain silent, or lose. Bend over so as not to break, and you will definitely have the opportunity to straighten up again.
In our world, cunning, resourcefulness, and deceit are a good counterbalance to strength, both physical and intellectual. And flexibility of thinking is in many ways a manifestation of these qualities, without which it is difficult or even impossible to beat a stronger opponent. Therefore, learn to pacify your pride so that it does not prevent you from being flexible when being firm and tough is unprofitable and dangerous. And in general, develop the flexibility of your thinking in the ways I suggested. They all do this perfectly. Checked! A flexible mind, friends, will help you survive and win.
One of the most important qualities for a successful businessman is flexibility. Despite clearly formulated plans and ways of their implementation, circumstances may develop in such a way that they will have to be adjusted. In such conditions, flexibility, the ability to adapt and make quick decisions come in handy.
Flexibility thinking consists in the ability to change the initially planned path (plan) for solving problems if it does not satisfy those conditions of the problem that are gradually identified in the course of its solution and which could not be taken into account from the very beginning.
Psychologos / Encyclopedia of Practical Psychology / http://www.psychologos.ru
- Flexibility is the variability of approaches, hypotheses and methods used in the thinking process.
- Flexibility means quick response and adequate solutions.
- Flexibility is the talent to establish contacts with completely different team members.
- Flexibility is the ability to assess the real scale of the problem and take the necessary measures.
- Flexibility is the adaptability and plasticity of thinking and behavior.
- Flexibility is the ability to replace an ineffective method with an optimal one.
- Flexibility is freedom from stereotypes.
Benefits of flexibility
- Flexibility allows you to achieve your goals in any circumstances.
- Flexibility of thinking helps to cope with difficulties and find alternative ways of development.
- Thanks to flexibility, we can take on different points of view, looking at situations from different angles.
- Flexibility helps you adapt to a wide variety of teams and circumstances.
Showing flexibility in everyday life
- Conflict situations. Contradictions that often arise between people risk developing into conflict situations. Flexibility and diplomacy help to put opponents in a peaceful mood.
- Negotiation. Defending interests risks escalating into open confrontation between negotiators. In any controversial situation, in order to maintain further relations it is necessary to show flexibility and sometimes accommodatingness.
- Learning process. By accumulating new knowledge, we become the owners of a broad outlook and thanks to this we acquire the possibility of variable thinking. The more flexible our attitude towards life becomes, the more objectively we can assess the situation.
- Research activities. The greatest scientific and technological achievements would be unimaginable if people acted solely by rules. It is thanks to mobility, flexibility and extraordinary thinking that everything new opens up.
How to achieve flexibility
- Use various methods to activate your thinking capabilities. For example, such as the “Method of focal objects”, “Method of control questions” and others.
- When setting certain tasks for yourself, try to ask questions like this as often as possible: “What additional ways of implementation are there?”, “Is it possible to look at the problem from the other side?”, “How can you optimize the process to achieve the best result?”, “Introducing what changes, will it be painless for the process due to the current circumstances?”
- In order to develop flexibility, it is necessary to train reaction speed, attentiveness and good memory. Structured thinking allows you to consider the issue from different angles and choose the most acceptable option from many possible ones.
- Refer to the teachings of yoga. By simultaneously achieving body plasticity and flexibility of thinking (they are directly interconnected), you can achieve a harmonious state.
Golden mean
Steadfastness, stubbornness
Flexibility
Inconsistency, opportunism
Catchphrases about flexibility
Flexibility of mind can replace beauty. - Stendhal - Love and respect for people, compliance and complaisance form the basis of calm. - Xun Tzu - Adapt to the circumstances that befall your life. And love the people you are destined to live with with all your heart. - Marcus Aurelius - God! Give me reason and peace of mindAccept what I cannot change.
Give me the courage to change what I can change.
And give me wisdom to distinguish one from another. - Russian Orthodox prayer of the 19th century - V. Vengar, R. Pou / Am I really a genius? A very interesting and informative book about how to develop flexibility and originality of thinking. The author reveals the essence of many abilities and gives interesting techniques that help solve various problems. David Malden / Management and the Power of NLP The author considers flexibility of thinking to be one of the most important qualities of a leader. The book describes the abilities and techniques of NLP that will help you achieve success not only in business and management, but also in everyday life.