Mental Flexibility Test
Your friend cancels movie and pizza plans last minute because they're sick. You feel like your whole day is ruined.
When your teenager fails an important math test, your partner responds by taking away car privileges. You'd rather ask your child what support they think would help them achieve their goals.
Your community review board rejects your dream home addition. Your immediate reaction is to consider moving somewhere else.
Your startup's first potential client keeps delaying their decision. Meanwhile, a company from a different industry expresses interest. You quickly pivot to develop expertise in this new area.
Your team has worked for weeks on a project plan when your boss announces they want to go in a completely different direction. You believe the best approach is to try convincing your boss why your original plan could succeed.
You've prepared for weeks to give a conference presentation. When you arrive at the podium, only four people are in the audience. You're ready to abandon your prepared speech, invite everyone closer, and turn it into an interactive discussion.
Your partner just went through multiple interviews for a dream job they didn't get and can't stop dwelling on it. You think the smart approach is to make them tea and help them identify three positive outcomes from the interview process.
Your siblings haven't spoken to you for months because they're upset about something you did. One morning you check your email and find an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner from one of them. You interpret this as an attempt to make peace.
You're responsible for solving a critical team problem. None of your ideas have worked so far. Even with the deadline approaching, you believe it's perfectly fine to take a break for a run before making one final attempt.
You and a teammate have a major disagreement about project direction. After emotions settle, you realize their idea has some good points. You decide not to mention this because you worry admitting it would make you look weak.
The cake you're baking completely fails to rise. With limited time to start over, you decide to crumble it up, put it in nice cups, add chocolate shavings on top, and serve it as an improvised pudding dessert.
Your date picks a local restaurant for dinner. When you arrive, there's a long wait. You notice their take-out counter is open, so you propose ordering food to go and having a picnic at a nearby park instead.
12 questions remaining
Things to Know
- Being able to change your mind when you get new information is not only a sign of mental flexibility, but it's also a skill you need in today's fast-paced, information-rich world.
- Being able to change your mind when a plan isn't working is especially important for leaders of all kinds.
- Mental flexibility shows how well the brain's executive control network works and how good you are at controlling your emotions and solving problems.
- If you are mentally flexible, you can come up with ways to act that fit the situation you are in.
- There is hardly ever just one right way to do something.
Do Something Now
Get out of autopilot: Do everything in the morning with your non-dominant hand, except for shaving.
Reframe disappointment: Change how you think about a bad experience by finding the lessons you learned from it.
Brainstorm: Pick a problem that you or a friend are having and try to think of as many ways to solve it as you can without judging them.
