and be able to change more easily …

Let’s face it! Stress can result in getting stuck in a small hole with no room for new ideas. This can hurt both individuals and on a larger scale - whole groups of people - even companies. With these small daily mind flexibility actions, keep your mind more flexible and open to new ideas.

1. Change something. Anything. Small changes can be tethered to larger shifts. Change your route to work, your desk, your schedule, where you have dinner at home. Small changes can strengthen new neural pathways.

2. Try new things that are hard for you. Each time you try to learn something frustrating, your brain creates new synapses plus triggers dopamine, a motivating chemical that helps memory and learning.

3. Meet people different than you and who challenge you. Don’t hang out with the same old group with the same old comfortable opinions.

4. Don't judge anything new, different or strange right away. Wait 24 hours, think about it and then decide.

5. Switch roles for a couple of minutes with a friend or partner … and describe the same event. Talk about it from the other person’s point of view. This helps create empathy, which keeps you flexible and adaptable.

6. Air mistakes you have made with a trusted group. Admitting where you've messed up creates a bond of humanity between you and others, and prevents the rigidity that comes from the need to be right.

Check out this short video program 5 Mini-Changes that create Bigger Changes

Since 1988, Dr. Janet Lapp has been one of America’s most sought-after change leadership experts. She is a licensed Psychologist, producer of the Emmy-nominated CBS-series “Keep Well”, inductee to the Speakers Hall of Fame, and author of five popular books on helping people change. Contact her through your speaker’s bureau or contact Liz at elizabeth@janetlapp.com.