Sheepdog Skill: Flexibility

You can't be adaptable without being flexible.

Here's the relationship.

Adaptability is what you do when the situation changes, and flexibility is the quality that allows you to do it without breaking.

You can't adapt consistently if you are mentally, physically, or emotionally rigid like that mighty oak.

Flexibility is a precondition, and adaptability is the expression of that flexibility.

We had a SEAL motto for this.

It was kind of a joke at first, but we took it seriously.

Uh, you know how the Marine Corps says Semper Fi, which means always faithful, always faithful? Well, in the SEALs we used to say Semper Gumby, always flexible.

Gumby being that little bendy character, that little green bendy character.

I used to have one of them in my locker all the time.

In fact, sitting around here on my desk somewhere.

Semper Gumby, always flexible, and that's a serious, uh, attribute.

So let's get a little precise here.

Flexibility can be misread as weakness oftentimes.

Let me dismantle that.

That is not true.

It's not the absence of form.

It's not being easily swayed or spineless or without conviction.

Those things are more like fragility.

That's not flexibility.

Rather, flexibility is strength expressed through range, greater range.

F-for example, physical flexibility means you've got a fuller range of motion, which is gonna produce more power, not less.

Your tight, rigid muscle is the one that's gonna tear, but that supple, flexible muscle, the one that's got greater range, can, can generate more force across the full arc of movement and also absorb impact without damage or with less damage.

Now, mental flexibility similarly means holding your belief with enough open awareness and nough- enough openness to new information that you're able to up- update your ideas and your mental models when new information comes that contradicts the old information or adds to it.

A rigid or fixed mind is one that will double down when confronted with evidence, even if it's wrong.