Elastic thinking: 5 ways to be better at it | BBC Ideas

The times are changing far faster than they ever were before and that requires a new kind of thinking - elastic thinking. Fortunately there are ways you can develop your elastic thinking. There's a ton of them. Here are five.

1. Pick an idea you don't believe in
I call this 'the idea of the day'. Every day, pick an idea that you don't believe in, try to convince yourself that it's true. I don't mean just go through the motions. I mean sincerely try to imagine how somebody who believes differently than you, but someone who you respect, could accept this idea and try to convince yourself of it.

2. Dwell on your wrongs
When we're wrong we often try to forget it. Well, this exercise is dwell on when you were wrong. Remember a time when you were wrong and the wronger you were and the more important it was the better and think about it hard, realise that you're not always right. One of the barriers to elastic thinking is our tendency to always think that we're correct and to keep moving in the same direction. This exercise will help free you of that.

3. Try new food
Food - this is a fun one. Go to a restaurant that you pick at random or to a restaurant that you normally wouldn't go to and try something you normally wouldn't order. Don't order the most popular dish, ask for the least popular dish. Research shows that if you stretch yourself in a way as simple as that it helps increase your creativity and imagination.

4. Talk to strangers
Your parents taught you "Don't talk to strangers". Well number four is do talk to strangers. In fact, talk to people as different from you as possible, people who believe what's different, just random people and try to understand how they think. And the more you're exposed to the way other people think the broader your own thinking will be.

5. Go see some art
Go see some art. I don't mean a Rembrandt, I mean art that's different even if you don't like it. Go see a Damien Hirst exhibit because exposing yourself to art that's different from the kind of art you normally see will help you think differently.

Research shows that if you do exercises such as these five things you'll broaden your thinking. You'll have an easier time adapting to change. You might even be the one to create the change yourself.

词汇表
elastic thinking  [ɪ'læstɪk] 弹性思维
a ton of [tʌn] 许多，很多，大量的
go through the motions [ˈməʊʃ(ə)n] 走过场，装装样子，敷衍了事
dwell on [dwel] 细想，详述；沉湎于，纠结于
barrier [ˈbæriə(r)] 障碍，阻碍，屏障
at random ['rændəm] 随机地，任意地
stretch oneself [stretʃ] 挑战自己，尽最大的努力
be exposed to [ɪkˈspəʊzd] 接触到，暴露于
Rembrandt ['rembrænt] 伦勃朗（荷兰画家）
Damien Hirst [ˈdæmiən hɜːst] 米恩·赫斯特（英国当代艺术家）
exhibit [ɪɡ'zɪbɪt] 展览，展览品
broaden your thinking [ˈbrɔːd(ə)n] 拓宽思维

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