Some friends came to visit over the weekend. At one point they encouraged us to do yoga with them led by some guru on a DVD. It was brutal. First of all, some of the moves I couldn't come close to performing (you want me to put that leg where?). Second I realized how very inflexible I am (see leg). However what struck me was the encouragement of the couple who told me not to be discouraged, that the body responded very quickly to the yoga moves. They told me it is like the muscle memory from any sport and that once the body knows it can do the movement it is much easier. I hope so. But my reflection on flexibility stretched a little further.
Individuals who achieve personal greatness have a powerful sense of who they are and where they are going. They set very high goals and are relentless in pursuing those goals. But it is a mistake to believe that they are rigid in either their thought process, or their path to their goals. It is this characteristic of flexibility which allows them to continue pursuing goals when others have given up.
For me, and I suspect many others, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing I know most of the ways to do things, or how things work. I have strong mental models that corral me into thinking certain ways, or coming to the same conclusion over and over. And it's this inflexibility that inhibits creativity and innovation. Recently I was attempting to remove a light bulb that had broken, leaving the metal casing still in the socket. I was trying to use a pair of pliers, but the twisting was just making a mess of the remainder of the light bulb. A friend who was watching me grow more frustrated asked if I had an old potato. He pushed the potato into the broken bulb and twisted out the remains of the bulb. A potato? Really? But if the goal was just to get the bulb out, why did I resist using something other than pliers? It wasn't my mental model.
So I'm trying to look at challenges differently. Rather than thinking in a linear fashion, i.e., if this is a nail I have to use a hammer, I try looking at the whole problem i.e., I'm trying to attach something to the wall. It opens up other possibilities and answers. The second thing I'm learning to do is slow down my thinking. If I think quickly I tend to come up with the same solutions because they are easy and I fall into routines. However if I take a little more time to think about the challenge and about my immediate reaction I can hold my first answer aside and see if I can come up with something else.
One additional thought about individuals who achieve personal greatness and their flexibility. What, on the outside, looks like a demonic rigor to pursuing a path, on closer inspection reveals that the end goal might be set, but the path to get there is open to flexibility and change all along the way. This is how they succeed. Where others might stop because they can't get traditional funding, these individuals figure out new ways to gain funding for their ideas. When others fail because a part is not available these individuals figure out how to create their product without the part, or with a different part. The key is that they have the end goal in mind, but realize that the road there might not be a straight line.
Physically we need flexibility to flourish and thrive, especially as we age. Yet also mentally we need to understand where we are not flexible in our thinking and stretch ourselves. Who knows? We might find a different and better way to do something we've done for years. It just requires a little flexibility. As for me, I'm not ready to buy a yoga mat, but I might try some of those stretches again.
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