There is a saying in the personal development world: “The person with the most flexibility has the most influence”
By flexibility, I’m really talking about behavioural flexibility.
Why should you be interested?
Well, let me put it a different way:
To boost your impact, influence and success, ramp up your behavioural flexibility
- There are no resistant customers, only inflexible salespeople
- There are no resistant audiences, only inflexible presenters
- There are no resistant clients, only inflexible coaches
- There are no resistant board members, only inflexible business cases
By adapting your attitudes, states, physiology and external behaviours, you’re far more likely to elicit a change in others than by doing nothing at all.
How do you increase your flexibility (apart from yoga!)?
PRACTICE!
Here are some simple examples to sprinkle into your daily routines:
- Brush your teeth with the opposite hand
- Listen to your phone with the opposite ear
- Travel to work/school via a different route or mode of transport
- Shop in a different supermarket
- Eat in a different restaurant
- Play Tennis, Squash, Baseball, Cricket etc with the opposite hand (and get your opponent to do the same!)
- Stop yourself mid-argument
- Listen when you would normally speak
- Try different foods
- Leave a little food on your plate each meal
- Listen to a completely different style of music
- Talk to at least one person you’ve never spoken to before, each day
- etc etc
Behavioural flexibility is particularly useful when linked with the attitude that “There is no failure, only feedback”.
The person with the greatest flexibility will control the situation. If you’re not getting the results you want, do something else, anything else will do!
How flexible are you, really?
Martin
Hi Martin,
You are very gracious in how you cite that list, thank you for putting it that way. You gently whump us upside the head to improve our genuine influence with clients.
I particularly enjoy your list of TO DOs….
I practice a number of those and regularly recommend them to single dating clients as well for shifting our perspective often.
Glad to see you blogging.
Happy Dating and Relationships,
April Braswell
Single Boomer Dating Expert
Flexibility is good for both physical body and our mind.
People with fixation or black/white views are bigoted.
People with an extreme flexibility or no emotional barriers, however, is “dangerous”. Because they can be “amoral”, no principle except being flexible and adaptable to the nth degree so that they have no true identity except b
… except blending in well with the whatever enviroment they are in.
This in numerology, is an EXTREMELY intense “2″ personality.
John Ho
Numerology Expert Helps Understanding Personality for Better Influence & Persuasion
This statement, “There is no failure, only feedback” is TRUE.
Health, Fitness for Working People — Darryl Pace
Short answer, “Not Flexible enough.” Mental flexibility takes practice and is a developed mindset, not just something we can chose to simply turn off and on.
Steve Chambers