The Dangers of Routine Thinking and How to Break the Mold

The so-called conventions are the laws inherited and recognized by people, the usual methods of analyzing and solving problems, and the crystallization of experience verified by long-term practice. However, even the routine is not without limitations. Sometimes, sticking to the routine becomes a trap that restricts thoughts and behaviors; boldly breaking the routine often leads to a fresh feeling of boundless horizons.
　　Fixed thinking binds hands and feet
　　In reality, many people do not know that they are avoiding routine traps in the face of difficult problems. The main reason is that they are affected by fixed thinking and bound by inertial thinking. We should learn more dialectics, have more innovative spirit, think from multiple angles, analyze from different perspectives, and keep pace with the times, so as to help bypass conventional traps and create more miracles.
　　One day, Emperor Kangxi was walking in the garden. When he came to a pond, he suddenly had a whim and asked the ministers around him: “How many barrels of water are there in this pond?” The ministers looked at each other, not knowing how to answer. Kangxi said: “I’ll give you three days to think about it. If you answer, you will be rewarded heavily, and if you don’t answer, you will be punished heavily.” After three days, the ministers were at a loss. A child comes along and claims to know how many buckets of water are in the pond. Kangxi asked him to answer. The child blinked and answered calmly: “It depends on what kind of bucket it is. If the bucket is as big as the pond, then there is one bucket of water in the pond; if the bucket is only half the size of the pond, then there are two buckets of water in the pond. If the bucket is only 1/3 the size of the pond, then there will be three buckets of water in the pond…” Kangxi rewarded the child heavily.
　　Why can’t the ministers answer? That’s because they fall into the trap of routine, letting the size of the pond bind their minds. But the kid put aside the size of the pond and thought about the problem from the perspective of the bucket, so the problem was solved.
　　break the rules
　　A store has a large backlog of watches. In order to promote sales, the boss came up with a trick: Anyone who buys a 60-yuan watch will get a vest as a special gift. A few days passed, and the watch was still unattended. The boss is very distressed. After the son who was in school learned about it, he said to his father, “It’s easy to handle, look at me!” He walked to the sign outside, and wrote a few words of “AoChi”—good guy, before Dad wakes up , Customers have already lined up on the inner three floors and the outer three floors. Before long, the watch was sold out. It turns out that my son only changed the position of what he wrote, and it became “Anyone who buys a vest for 60 yuan will get a watch as a gift!” It can be seen that changing the angle and bypassing the conventional traps will produce great effectiveness!
　　Retreat to win.
　　In the semi-finals of the European Men’s Basketball Championship, the Bulgarian team met the Czechoslovakian team. This evenly matched game was extremely fierce. With 8 seconds left before the end of the game, the Bao team led by 2 points and had the right to kick off the baseline. But the strange thing is that the coach of the Bao team who won by two points was worried, but the coach of the Czech team who lost by two points was confident.
　　Why is this? It turns out that the Bao team’s small points in other games are not as good as the Czech team. In this game, they must win the Czech team by more than 5 points to qualify. The problem is that it is too difficult to score a three-pointer in the last 8 seconds.
　　At the critical moment, the coach of the security team requested a timeout to teach his players face-to-face instructions. After the game continued, something unexpected happened on the court: two defenders kicked off from the baseline and took the ball to the midfield. At this time, all five Czech players suddenly retreated to their half-court defense. At the end of the game, the team member who took the ball suddenly turned around and threw the ball into his own basket. At the same time, the referee’s whistle blew.
　　The audience was stunned, and when the referee announced that the two sides had tied and needed overtime, people suddenly realized. It was Bao’s unexpected move that broke the rules and created a chance for himself to come back from the dead. In the last 5 minutes, the security team had high morale and worked hard, and finally won the game by 6 points and won the right to the final. It wasn’t until then that people woke up like a dream and understood the sophistication and shrewdness of the team’s coach-“If you want to take what you want, you must give it first”: give the opponent 2 points and win 5 minutes of overtime.
　　The research results of psychologists show that the abilities we usually use are only 2% to 5% of our own abilities. In general, routines are fine, but in certain circumstances, routines tend to become traps. That is to say, when the routine is no longer suitable for the changed new situation, one should emancipate the mind, break the routine, be good at innovation, and achieve unexpected victories. In fact, the road to breaking the rules is the road to wisdom and success.