The Importance Of Cognitive Flexibility

Sweat and dirt covered my shirt. My body ached while I undid the lug nuts from the trailer tire. An hour ago, my convoy crew had finally made it back to Kuwait but found out from the tactical operations center that we had another mission. That is why I am here in the maintenance bay, making sure the truck was ready to go out again. Unfortunately, I had another flat and this was the third one this mission. Thankfully, the last two weeks had been without incident, other than a few maintenance issues and the washers being broke at Balad. Life was tough spending the days in 120-degree temperature. The operations tempo was exhausting. I was driving missions back to back during the largest retrograde of military forces since World War II. What got me through the tough moments when I was exhausted mentally or physically was my optimism. Life on a deployment requires a high degree of adaptability. When we discuss adaptability and how to respond effectively, we must understand that there are three degrees of adaptability. Imagine a tripod, if one of these legs fail, the tripod falls down. Cognitive Flexibility is the ability to use different thinking …show more content…
We cannot always control the challenges that happen. However, as individuals, we can react when presented with changes. If I continually travel through life with a negative attitude, life will seem negative. With dispositional flexibility, you can control how you frame the situation. Even when I was working long hours driving convoys in Iraq, I found optimism in the fact that my fellow Airman were safe. I also found optimism in the fact that we were safe, had hot meals, and could rest when needed. I was able to find motivation and a reason to continue on knowing I was serving my country and making a difference. Whether individuals agreed or not with the political motivations, people needed supplies and I was more than happy to do