It’s been nearly a year of the most profound disruption and change most of us have ever experienced, and there I are moments when it feels like a lot. Too much.
The other day, I was listening to a podcast with JJ Abrams and Adam Grant, and it raised poignant questions: Are my belief systems a comfort against the threat of so much change? Am I holding onto my ideas because I simply don’t want to let go of one more thing I know to be true? Adam Grant talked about new research in his latest book Think Again that explores our tendency, when we lack control of one domain of our lives, to become highly motived to seek it in another area of life. And the one area we all have control of is what we believe.
But how do we become open to challenge our beliefs and assumptions? JJ Abrams gives a hint into how he is able to rethink anew so that he can create new movies and characters that move us: “I never go into anything with a template for how it should or shouldn’t be.” He gave interesting examples of how rethinking his writing, even to the point of starting over, almost always leads to something better. That’s not easy to do, because we all know how it feels when we lose something we’ve worked so hard on, and we have to find the creativity and resolve to begin again.
If you’re in the midst of unrelenting change or facing a challenge that requires new thinking, I highly recommend listening to the episode. I for one am eager to dive into Think Again and learn to be more like a scientist, experimenting with life with openness and curiosity.
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