The Power of Adaptive Thinking
There are many skills that people can use to achieve their goals and dreams in life. Some of these skills can determine the outcome in many situations and adaptive thinking is without a doubt one of the most powerful skills a person can have to overcome the challenges that they face day by day.
In a nutshell, adaptive thinking is the skill to recognize any situations that are unexpected and stressful, and being able to adapt to those situations as quickly as possible to make the best possible decision.
Let me give you a very raw example of adaptive thinking in a boxing match. When two boxers are fighting, one of them may be doing something strange and unique that is catching their opponent and hitting them often, if the other boxer does not look for a way to adapt to that strategy, the chances of getting knocked out are huge.
Basically, the boxer trains for many scenarios and styles of boxing before getting in the ring, but if the opponent does something very unique, they feel lost and they end up losing the fight. Adaptive thinking allows that boxer to start thinking of a way to counter that unique strategy on the fly.
The same skill can be applied by a person who is feeling depressed and is unable to get away from that depressive mindset. They can decide to adapt to the situation and engage in activities that help them remove themselves for their depressive state.
Adaptive Thinking
Adaptive thinking allows a company president to decide to take risks with a new product because the existing product is not going to be profitable much longer. The process of adapting your way of thinking to create a different outcome to any given situation is going to be essential.
Some of the most common traits of adaptive thinkers include:
- They have a strong emotional intelligence
- They have a curious nature
- They have the ability to think outside the box
- They don’t let their ego get in the way
How to Become an Adaptive Thinker
If you feel that this is a skill that you do not possess, there are several things you can do to nurture adaptive thinking:
1. Be aware of the unpredictable nature of life
The biggest issue that most people have in life is that they don’t acknowledge that life is extremely unpredictable. An adaptive thinker knows that there is no way to control life and all they can do is adapt to the unpredictable twists that come their way.
2. Keep an open mind
There is no right way to do anything in life and this is the kind of flexibility that will help you enhance your adaptive thinking skills. Never expect life to be a single road with no alternate paths. Always keep in mind that you may need to choose one of those paths to turn it into your main road in the future.
3. Question everything without hesitation
You should never believe that anything you know is etched in stone and this means that you should be questioning everything that happens around you. This is not to say you should question things for the sake of questioning them. If something feels right, you can question it just to reinforces its value, but the point is that you need to be brave enough to question everything even if it seems to be working to your advantage.
Final Thoughts
Adapting is basically what we have been doing as a species ever since we started to roam the earth. We need to make sure that we can keep evolving and adapting because this is going to help us achieve greater things in every aspect of our lives.
