The Single Most Important Thinking Habit Nobody Taught You

https://medium.com/swlh/the-most-important-thinking-habit-nobody-taught-you-fdcd48bfa2d9

Thomas Oppong
Dec 13, 2018

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

George Bernard Shaw said that.

And Einstein also said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

Life is neither static nor unchanging, it’s fluid.

Nothing stays the same.

Elastic thinking (experts may call it cognitive flexibility) allows us to shift gears and think about something in more than one way.

Flexible thinkers consider a range of different possible consequences of their actions rather than only considering an optimistic view or only considering a pessimistic view.

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How to develop an agile mind

The good news is flexible thinking skills can be taught.

For those wishing to tap into elastic thinking, Mlodinow suggests carving out time for daydreaming, talking to people outside your social circle, absorbing great art out of your comfort zone, listening to ideas or concepts you actively disagree with before disregarding them.

Always try to look at everything from more than one angle.

Change the context or your environment and you’ll feel your mind shift.

Take a walk. Take a coffee break.

Exercise offers another great mental boost.

The more you can challenge yourself to be spontaneous and allow for some new experiences, the easier it will be to integrate flexibility into your everyday life!

Mental flexibility is aided by novelty, and that contributes to brain growth and development throughout a lifetime.

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