How to acquire flexible thinking? Accept others’ values and standards completely.

Haven't you often been told, or felt, that you lack flexibility in your thinking? In fact, flexible thinking plays a very significant role when the time comes. When you're in a pinch. When you're working on a big project. When you absolutely must succeed. When something important is at stake, flexibility of thought demonstrates great value.

But how exactly can one acquire flexible thinking? Some of you might be wondering. That's right, there's no fixed method for acquiring flexible thinking. However, there is one single approach: if you can do this, you can advance to the stage of acquiring flexible thinking!

This time, I've thought about why one might not be able to acquire flexible thinking, and what exactly one should do to make their thinking flexible, so I'd like to share my thoughts. I hope this can be of some help to your thinking.

Why can't one have flexible thinking?

When considering what flexibility is, I think it's the breadth of one's values. There are all sorts of values in the world. However, people somehow, either unconsciously or consciously, block out values other than their own.

It might also depend on hobbies and preferences. What you think is good, what you think is bad. Everything is formed within your values. At times, your own values, along with tremendous commitment, can lead to results in your work. Values also hold great importance in how you interact with people and in relationships.

Such values, which can be said to occupy a large part of life. So, if we look at them from the perspective of flexibility of thought, how do they appear?

In terms of flexible thinking, one's own values are an obstructive presence. They become a shackle that confines thought within a certain worldview. One's own values, in a sense, are about deciding that 'this is my world'. In other words, one's perspective doesn't reach values outside of one's own, leading to an inability to see what kind of value they hold from a bird's-eye view.

To acquire flexible thinking, one must fully accept both others' values and one's own values.

If you want to acquire flexible thinking, learn to temporarily 'release' your own values. However, don't discard them completely; keep them deep in your heart. Then, accept all sorts of values, understanding that such ways of thinking also exist.

Even things that seem useless within your own values might be important to someone else's values. Just as something that seems useless from someone else's perspective can be a precious value within you. All sorts of values are formed based on a person's life experiences and past. Therefore, if you change your perspective, both others' values and your own values hold a certain level of hidden worth, if viewed from a different angle or perspective.

Naturally, some people will follow others' values. And there should be many people who will follow your own values. By drawing upon and combining multiple values as needed, you can acquire flexible thinking.

Flexible thinking means drawing thoughts from places that are entirely outside of your own or others' established criteria, and then extracting and combining them. To gain new thoughts and flexible ways of thinking, you must first expand your thinking beyond what you've decided and believe to be 'this is how it is'.

Of course, your own values are important. However, knowing when to use them is also crucial. When you need to think flexibly. When you need completely novel ideas or ideas to overcome a predicament. It's important to acknowledge and understand others' thoughts, not just your own perspective and values, and to be able to use them when appropriate.

If you are told that your thinking lacks flexibility. When you feel it. It might be that you are not using your own thoughts and values, but rather are trapped by them. Try once to pay attention to and absorb others' values and thoughts. Surely, if you change your perspective, you might find many discoveries that you couldn't understand before.