Rule of Life’s Rule 7: Be flexible in your thinking

Nigeria’s Media Lords; Chief Dele Momodu (Bob Dee) Mr. Isiaka Akinpelu (Lord Mayor) and Mr. Kunle Bakare (KB)

Once your
thinking gets crystallized, rigid, formed, you have lost  the battle. Once you think you have all the
answers, you might as well hang up your boots. Once you get set in your ways,
you are already part of history.

To get the
most out of life you have to keep all your options open, keep your thinking and
life flexible. You have to be ready to roll as the storm breaks—and by golly it
always breaks when you least expect it. The instant you are established in a
set pattern, you set yourself up for being knocked off-course. You might need
to examine your thinking pretty closely to understand what I mean. Flexible
thinking is a bit like mental martial arts—being ready to duck and weave, dodge
and flow. Try to see life not as the enemy, but as a friendly sparring partner.
If you are flexible, you will have fun. If you stand your ground you are likely
to get knocked about a bit.
We all have
set patterns of life. We like to label ourselves as this or that and are quite
proud of our opinions and beliefs. We all like to read a set of paper, watch
the same sorts of TV programmes or movies, go to the same sort of shops every
time, eat the sort of food that suits us, wear the same type of clothes. And
all this is fine. But if we cut ourselves off from all other possibilities, we
become boring, rigid, hardened—and thus likely to get knocked about a bit.

Nigeria’s Soft Sell King, Dr. Seye Kehinde of City People Media Group

You have to
see life as a series of adventures. Each adventure is a chance to have fun,
learn something, explore the world, expand your circle of experience and
friends, and broaden your horizons. Shutting down to adventure means exactly
that—you are shut down.
The second
you are offered an opportunity to have an adventure, to change your  thinking, to step outside of yourself, go for
it and see what happens. If this thought scares you, remember that you can
always go back into your shell the second it’s over, if you want to.
Even saying
‘Yes’ to every opportunity isn’t set in stone as a rule, because that would be
inflexible. The really flexible thinkers know when to say ‘no’ as well as when
to say ‘yes’.
If you want
to know how flexible your thinking is, here are a couple of tests. Are the
books by the side of your bed the same sorts of books you have always read?.
Have you found yourself saying anything like ‘I don’t know any people like that
or I don’t go to those kind of places?’. If so, then perhaps it’s time to
broaden your mind and take the shackles off your thinking.
 (Excerpts
from the Book: The Rules of Life by
Richard Templar. Read Rule 8 in our
next post on Asabeafrika)

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