Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #9 Rich People are Bigger than Their Problems

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Wealth File #9:

Rich People are Bigger than Their Problems.

Poor People* are Smaller than Their Problems.

The size of the problem is never the issue, what matters is the size of you! Harv Eker said, “If you have a big problem in your life, all that means is that you are being a small person!” Either you are whining about the problem or you are working on the solution. This is straight to the point: It’s all about you! Whatever happens in your life, be it good or bad, interesting or boring, tough or easy, what matters is how you get affected by it. What matters is you! There are no problems, there are only situations. We then make them a problem. Respectively, some people make it a problem, others don’t even get affected or realize it. How can that be?

Good question, right? How can it be that the exact same situation is a problem for one but not for another? It depends on the person, you may say – and you’re right. It depends on you. I remember when I went to work from KL Central to Times Square. Monorail KL would take people every five minutes or so. At times, these trains were crazily crowded (especially on weekends). You see in the faces of people how they felt about the situation. And interestingly, some people got negatively affected by the crowded train EVERY SINGLE DAY. Why? Are you that small of a person that a crowded train is a problem for you? And even if it is (e.g. due to claustrophobia, fear of being in closed/crowded places), you do have other options such as go earlier, go by bus or bike, use a taxi or Grab, or walk…

Do you see my point? You can either whine about the situation (make it a problem) or work on the solution. Eker says it over and over again, “What matters is the size of you.” The more you work on yourself, the fewer the problems there will be – you’ll be bigger than any problem. So, don’t be the person whining about the crowded train… that’s NOT a problem! “It’s not what happens to you,” said the wise Epictetus, “but how you react to it that matters.” Say this to yourself…

[*I need to note that the Harv Eker makes it clear in this book that he does not mean to degrade poor people. He does not think that rich people are better than poor or middle-class people. They’re just richer.]

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

12 Rules for Life #12 Pat a Cat When You Encounter One on the Street (Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Set aside some time to talk and to think about the illness or other crisis and how it should be managed every day. Do not talk or think about it otherwise. If you do not limit its effect, you will become exhausted, and everything will spiral into the ground. This is not helpful. Conserve your strength. You’re in a war, not a battle, and a war is composed of many battles. You must stay functional through all of them. When worries associated with the crisis arise at other times, remind yourself that you will think them through, during the scheduled period”

(Jordan Peterson)

This final rule is mainly autobiographical and Peterson tells us about tragedy and pain. When tragic things are in front of us and we’re powerless, we must keep our eyes open for those little things that make life worthwhile. The title of this chapter inspired from the author’s experience of observing a local stray cat and watching it adapt to its surroundings in a harsh environment. “

When you feel that your life is crewed up there is a way to make it easier to handle until you make it back on your feet. That is to shorten your “temporal horizon.” Stop thinking about what’s going to happen in the next months. Think about what and how you can improve today’s day or maybe just the next hours. Shrink the time frame until you can eventually handle the rest of it and this is how you adjust to devastation. It’s very important to not give up even in the worst situations, even if you’re at a place you’d rather not be, always try to look for what’s meaningful and worthwhile. “When you are going for a walk and your head is spinning a cat will show up and if you pay attention to it then you will get a reminder for just fifteen seconds that the wonder of Being might make up for the ineradicable suffering that accompanies it,” wrote Peterson, “Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.”

Keep Your Eyes on What’s Meaningful and Worthwhile.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: You Always Choosing (Chapter 5 Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (2016) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Whether we like it or not,
we are always taking an active role in what’s occurring to and within us”

(Mark Manson)

When we feel miserable about our lives, it is often because we are not in control – someone or something has hijacked us and is forcing us through a series of bad situations. However, when we know that our problems are of our own choosing, we feel empowered. We might still have a lot of work to do, and even some pain, but we feel in control of that struggle.

Manson tells the story of William James, a man who suffered of lot of setbacks in life including disease and disability. Much of what happened to James was not his fault, but he suffered for it all the time. James was on the brink of suicide when he decided to try an experiment: for one year, James decided to take responsibility for everything that happened to him, whether or not it was his fault. Eventually, he went on to become the father of American psychology.

Things happen to us that are out of our control, but Manson reminds us that our interpretation of these things is always under our control. Taking responsibility for our own experiences gives us power. It also helps us to realize that we cannot control anyone else –we can only control how we respond to the other people in our lives. This is often tricky, such in the face of tragedy. Events like cancer, tsunamis and car crashes happen to people every day, and those people did not choose to be affected. However, they must choose how to proceed.

F*ck! Take responsibility for everything that happens in your life.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: Don't Try (Chapter 1 Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck (2016) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience”

(Mark Manson)

The author introduce his book with the story of a man who, for the majority of his life, was a complete failure and a loser. Eventually, this man – Charles Bukowski – found success in his writing career. But that didn’t really make him much less of a loser-like behaviours that had become a habit for much of his adult life – getting drunk every night, spending his time with prostitutes, and exposing himself in public, just to name a few.

Interestingly enough, when Bukowski died, the epitaph engraved on his tombstone said: “Don’t Try.” This advice and Bukowski’s story, completely flies in the face of the thousands of books, movies and seminars that all preach that if you don’t give up, you can overcome your shortcomings and become great. But Manson tells us that this supposedly positive self-help advice is actually contributing to your unhappiness because it highlights everything that you lack, essentially saying that in order to improve, you have to feel really bad about yourself first.

Manson insists that the conventional “think positive” approach teaches us that we need to give a fuck about too many things – nice cars, perfect bodies, the biggest house, the most attractive family, etc. And every day we are bombarded with images from our TV and smartphone screens that show us other people that have these kinds of amazing lives. We begin to believe that feeling anxious or sad or unsatisfied is simply unacceptable at all times, which makes us feel even worse for feeling these emotions.

So Manson has an alternative theory. Since the desire for a better life actually has a negative effect on our emotions, we should instead accept the negative aspects of our life. Doing this will lead to a more positive experience, because as soon as we stop fearing the pain of our negative experiences, we are able to truly challenge ourselves without allowing anything to hold us back. Don’t try to achieve happiness by escaping the negative aspects of your life, but rather by embracing them. “To not give a fuck is to stare down life’s most terrifying and difficult challenges and still take actions.”

Manson is quick to clarify that he does not mean that a person should be indifferent to everything in life – those kinds of people are known as psychopaths. Rather than being indifferent, we should learn how to be comfortable with being different. This means not caring what someone thinks of our outfit or our choice of career – standing by our choices in the face of adversity. And to stare down adversity, we must first learn how to care about something bigger than adversity – rising above the trivial annoyances of our lives in order to find a problem worth “giving a fuck about.” And we do control what we give a fuck (care a lot) about.

Bottom line? You have the choice to care or not to care about the things that happen in your life. So you need to choose to care about something that’s really and truly important. Manson writes, “Choose to give a fuck only about the things that are truly important.”

Don’t Give A F*ck!

How to Choose Optimism #5 Put Things in Perspective

Why take the full force of everything that happens to us? Instead, take a step back and put an event into perspective by comparing it with others that we have experienced. That’s not distancing ourselves from reality – it’s actually giving its rightful place. To those who doubt this, I recommend listening to the stories of people who had cancer from early period and who were fighting and even finding new reasons to live and hope. I’ve been with students at hospital and most of them displayed incredible desire to improve their mindsets.

Joel Osteen, a motivational teacher, once said: “Nothing happens to you, it happens for you. See the positive in negative events.” When things happen “to” you, you feel helpless and victimized. However, if you look at things as happening “for” you, then you take some of your power back. This allows you to look at the lessons and blessings (a.k.a. silver linings) within anything you might experience. Give the right and positive perspective from your experience.

How important are your frustrations and upsets, really?

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Accept Reality and Act on It

“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be”
(Jack Welch)

While we can change certain things, other things are out of our control. And if something is really out of our control, we have to learn to accept it regardless of how much we wish it were different. We may not like the law of gravity and may hope it did not exist (so we can fly!), and yet most of us accept it and learn to live with it. If we refuse to accept the reality of this law, we will not survive for long, and even if we do, we will experience constant frustration. The same applies to every fact of reality, such as the fact that it is impossible to literally go back in time and undo something that was done, or the fact that all of us have some real physical limitations.

Instead of evading reality and spending our life engaged in wishful thinking, we ought to spend our time and effort on real thinking. “You cannot tailor-make the situations in life,” said Zig Ziglar, “but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations.” See things as it really are, but then don’t let those that are beyond our control paralyzed us. Facts and our limitations may seem impossible to change – accept reality - but we have the choice of how we are to react about it (attitude) and act on it (positive actions).

Don’t refuse to accept reality,

Accept reality and act on it.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 Reference: Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

Nurture Creativity: Reverse Your Thinking

“Reversals destabilize your conventional thinking patterns

and frees information to come together in provocative new ways”

(Michael Michalko)

I have a love-hate memories when I think of Singapore (Whatever!) It is an interesting place, of course. There they have the world first nocturnal zoo and is one of the most popular tourist attractions. It is called the Night Safari. What amazing about this zoo is that, ‘unlike traditional nocturnal houses, which reverse the day-night cycle of animals so they will be active by day, the Night Safari is an entire open-air zoo set in a humid tropical forest that is only open at night.’* The concept of a nocturnal park in Singapore was suggested in the 1980s by the former executive chairman of the Singapore Zoo, Dr Ong Swee Law. Instead of having a day zoo, they reversed the situation to having a night safari. If you haven’t been there, I encourage you to experience it yourself.

Reverse thinking. It is looking at your problem and reframes it by reversing the order of the problem in order to view it from a completely different angle. Creative people sometime come up with great ideas by reversing the problem by reversing their thinking about that problem. For example, a student came to me one day and ask if we can get more helpers during the camp because he said that based on the program we have a shortage of manpower. Instead of looking for more helpers, and obviously we had not enough people, I reversed his thinking and asked him, “Can we decrease some of the program activities instead?” By doing that we managed to organize the camp with no unnecessary extra helpers, lower budget and relaxing-well-planned program.

Marelisa Fabrega, lawyer and entrepreneur, writes, “Start at the end; think of what you don’t want; flip it on its head… these are all examples of reverse thinking. Now think of a problem that you’re having or an obstacle that you’re facing, and apply reverse thinking. You might be surprised by the ideas you come up with.” Consider other possible areas in which reverse thinking are prove useful. Just read how this statement by John F. Kennedy can impact our lives: “Ask not what the nation can do for you but ask what you can do for the nation.” Reverse thinking. Powerful, isn’t it? Now let’s be honest, you cannot practise reverse thinking all the time but there will be opportunities to do so. “Reversing the way you look at things encourages you to consider things that may not be considered at all,” said Michael Michalko in his book Cracking Creativity. “Reversals break your existing patterns of thought and provoke new ones. You take things as they are and then turn them around, inside out, upside down, and back to front to see what happens.”

Do you want to nurture and be more creative? Think in reserve.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Steve Jobs said "Creativity is Just Connecting Things"

Picture: Credits to Hugh MacLeod & Vitor Bellote  

“You cannot force creativity to happen—every creative person can attest to that.

But the essence of creativity is making connections and solving puzzles”

(Nancy C. Andreasen, Neuroscientist)

Creativity is connecting things. In other word, making connections where none existed before is what creativity is all about. The world is our field. Thus, there are practically unlimited possible connections that can be made. We are making connections all the time as part of our learning process. For example, a lot of things happen when I’m doing one thing and I’m not thinking about what my mind is doing. I’m either watching movie, I’m reading a book, eating my lunch and then – I make a connection. It may have nothing to do with what I am doing, but somehow or other I see something or hear something or do something, and it pops that connection together. People use to say, millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked, ‘why?’

“Creativity is just connecting things,” Steve Jobs, late CEO of Apple told Wired magazine. “When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people… Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem.”

Jobs told a story when he took calligraphy in college, a course with no practical applications to his life then. But after he came back later he used his knowledge and skills to added Macintoch, the first computer with beautiful typeface, fonts, and calligraphy. The dots were connected. Creativity is connecting things. Can be few years from now, can be months from now, can be in a minute later. So how to connect the dots? Here are my suggestions (at least, these are the things that I do myself):

§  Carry a notebook and keep track of everything – especially in the toilet (sometime I just write ideas on tissue!)

§  Read to add more knowledge. Logically, the more knowledge you have, the more connection you can make.

§  Play or try to experience more things in life. Most of the time, connections just happen when you least expected it.

§  Review the last sermons or scratch or whatever notes you had wrote before. Recalling and reminding are the best way to spark creative connections.

§  Try observation skill. Just look around you and try to make connections between things which may show similarity or maybe totally unrelated.

Don’t just stare the ceiling, make connections.

Don’t just read and play, make connections.

Don’t just eat and sleeping, make connections.

Maybe just relax, and there is a connection!

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Be Crazy, Think Differently

After watching Computer History Museum channel interview Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs: The Authorized Biography, I instantly mesmerized by Steve Jobs’ personalities. I then watched BBC’s Steve Jobs Documentary: Billion Dollar Hippy and Discovery Channel’s iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World on Youtube. After that, I went to Popular Bookstore to get any books on Steve and I found a very great book offer of Jay Elliot’s The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation for RM15 only! Usually it’s RM85.90. Wow! Awesome!

When I or anyone think of intuitive leadership, innovative thinker, visionary, and world changing creative-idea guy, one cannot not think of Steve Jobs and his company Apple. Have you heard it famous “Think Different” campaign before? Not long after some conflicts and leadership problems in his own founded company, Steve Jobs returned to Apple. When he returned, the iconic “The Crazy Ones” commercial was aired as part of the larger “Think Different” campaign. What was less known at the time was that Steve Jobs write the commercial himself. He wanted to revive the company and inspired not only its customers but its employees as well. The version of “The Crazy Ones” that Steve himself narrates didn’t aired until after his dead. If you already watch the commercial, you will remember this legendary speech:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Mind you, there’s a fine line between creativity and insanity. I don’t mean (I think Steve Jobs also don’t mean) clinical insanity – there’s nothing good about that. But when I say “Be Crazy, Think Differently” I mean a kind of functional craziness that should inhabit our creativity. That wacky and insane-sounding concepts of ideas are what I’m talking about. Be crazy. Remember, not all crazy ideas will worked out. Sometimes crazy ideas has to come at the right time. But what is sure is that the world need “The Crazy Ones” – are you the one?

Be crazy, think differently

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Characteristics of a Creative Person #1: Have a Curiosity and a Childlike Sense of Wonder

“Cultivate your garden. Do not depend upon teachers to educate you…

follow your own bent, pursue your curiosity bravely,

express yourself, make your own harmony” (Will Durant)

There’s a lot of talk these days about reconnecting with the child within us. Whether you agree with the psychological objectives of such a plan, it can’t be argued that children have healthy curiosities. Through a child’s eyes, the world is a fascinating place, constantly full of new discoveries and revelations. In our adult attempt to stay on the grow, what could be better than to re-establish the type of enthusiasm with which a child experiences the world?

With curiosity you are inspired to search for hidden strengths and abilities. With curiosity you are motivated to look beyond your present circumstances for any reason. Thanks God for people like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Madame Curie, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein and so many others were curious people with a childlike sense of wonder.

If you’ve allowed yourself to become cynical and closed off over the years, it’s time to re-stimulate your curiosity factor. Reading more, travelling, initiating discussions with interesting people you admire and purposefully getting involved in new and unusual activities and hobbies are just a few ways to get you inquisitive juices flowing again. Peter F. Drunker, world’s top management guru, once suggested that you walk away from your situation, bend over and look back between your legs. He contends that once you look at situation backwards and upside down, you’ll have a more functional perspective.

Creative people have a curiosity and a childlike sense of wonder

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

*I recommend you to read Danny Cox and John Hoover’s Seize the Day (Book-mart Press, 1994), “Step Two: Developing Strengths” page 77-118.

Barriers to Creativity #8: "Don't be Foolish"

This picture of Richard Branson play as AirAsia waitress really make me laugh!

Creativity, like common sense, is supposed to be common. Creativity is natural and spontaneous. Yet it is not exhibited as frequently as it should. Experts believe that there are several reasons for this. These reasons are called ‘Barriers to Creativity’. ‘Barriers’ are the thing that stop us from thinking creatively and the reason that make us not as creative as we should be.

Barrier #8: “Don’t Be Foolish”

Don’t be afraid to appear foolish. Granted that all of us are subject to group pressures but in creative situations we cannot simply follow the majority, for the majority is not always right. Furthermore new ideas are not formed in conforming environments. When in a group, people tend to get the approval of others rather than trying to come up with creative solutions or ideas. When everyone think alike, no one is doing much thinking. All we need to do is to agree.

To be creative we need to take a ‘poke’ at rules, regulations and conventions that keep us thinking the same old stuff. It will get us out of the rut and put our thinking to finding better solutions and ideas. If Christopher Columbus really believed that the world is flat, he would not have dared to attempt to sailing around the earth.

Occasionally play the fool and see what crazy ideas you may come up with. The crazy ideas, my friend, may prove to be winners!

           

Play the fool sometimes.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Barriers to Creativity #6: "That's Not My Area"

Creativity, like common sense, is supposed to be common. Creativity is natural and spontaneous. Yet it is not exhibited as frequently as it should. Experts believe that there are several reasons for this. These reasons are called ‘Barriers to Creativity’. ‘Barriers’ are the thing that stop us from thinking creatively and the reason that make us not as creative as we should be.

Barrier #6: “That’s Not My Area”

            Today’s world is one of specialization. Specialists are held in high regard. As a strategy for creative thinking, however, specialization spells “danger” because it leads to the attitude that says “It’s not my area.” When this happens the person not only limits himself or herself to a small area, he or she may also stop looking for ideas in other fields. In creativity, cross-references and diversities are essential. We borrow from any field that can contribute to serves the purpose. We often hear people say, “That is an admin problem” or “I’m sorry, I can’t help you because that is not my area of specialization.”

            Ideas from one field can be used to make discoveries in another. In a brainstorming session, for example, the ideas generated would be much better and wider if the group compromises people from a variety of backgrounds rather than one in which all members are specialists in one particular are. Imagine the kind of ideas we can get if we put engineer, mechanical, business and psychology students together – Wow!

   

As far as creativity concern, be a generalist.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Creative People are Daring

Reepicheep the Mouse from Chronicles of Narnia is a small and daring creature :) 

For the creative, thinking is an adventure. Because they are relatively free of preconceived notions and prejudiced views, creative people are less inclined to accept prevailing views, less narrow in their perspectives, and less likely to conform with the thinking of those around them. They are bold in their conceptions, willing to entertain unpopular ideas and seemingly unlikely possibilities. Therefore, like Galileo and Columbus, Edison and the Wright brothers, they are more open than others to creative ideas.

Their daring has an additional benefit: It makes them less susceptible to face-saving than others. They are willing to face unpleasant experiences, apply their curiosity, and learn from those experiences. As a result, they are less likely than others to repeat the same failure over and over.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Taken from Vincent Ryan Ruggiero’s The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought (8^th Edition), (United States: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007) pg. 90

Creative People are Dynamic

Unlike most people, creative people do not allow their minds to become passive, accepting, unquestioning. They manage to keep their curiosity burning, or at least to rekindle it. One aspect of this intellectual dynamism is playfulness. Like little children with building blocks, creative people love to toy with ideas, arranging them in new combinations, looking at them from different perspectives.

It was such activity that Isaac Newton was referring to when he wrote,

“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding… a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

Albert Einstein was willing to speculate further. He saw such playfulness as “the essential feature in productive thought.” But whatever the place of playfulness among the characteristics of creative people, one thing is certain: it provides those people a richer and more varied assortment of ideas than the average person enjoys.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Taken from Vincent Ryan Ruggiero’s The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought (8^th Edition), (United States: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007) pg. 90

Creative-Idea Strategy: Think Like a Fool

Roger von Oech is the writer of my favourite book on creativity A Whack on the Side of the Head (25^th Anniversary already). One of his favourite creative thinking strategies is: THINK LIKE A FOOL. He explained:

"Carrying the strategy of "looking at things differently" to extremes brings us to the realm of the fool, the being for whom everyday ways of understanding have little meaning. It's the fool's job to extol the trivial, trifle with the exalted, and parody the common perception of a situation. In doing so, the fool makes us conscious of the habits we take for granted and rarely question. A good fool needs to be part actor and part poet, part philosopher and part psychologist. And throughout history, the fool has been consulted by Egyptian pharaohs and Babylonian kings, Chinese emperors, Greeks tyrants, and Hopi Indian chiefs.

The fool will reverse our standard assumptions. He'll say, “If a man is sitting on a horse facing the rear, why do we assume that it is the man who is backwards, and not the horse?”

The fool notices things that other people overlook. He might ask, “Why do people who pour cream into their coffee do so after the coffee is already in the cup, rather than pouring the cream in first and saving themselves the trouble of stirring?”

The fool can also be irreverent. He'll pose riddles such as, “What does a rich man put in his pocket that the poor man throws away?” When he answers, “Snot,” he forces us to re-examine the sanctity of our everyday rituals.

The fool can be cryptic. He'll say the best way to see something is with your ears. Initially, this may seem weird, but after you've thought about it, you might agree that listening to a story conjures up more images than watching television.

The fool can be absurd. Having lost his donkey, a fool got down on his knees and began thanking God. A passer-by saw him and asked, “Your donkey is missing; why are you thanking God?” The fool replied, “I'm thanking Him for seeing to it that I wasn't riding him at the time. Otherwise, I would be missing as well.”

The fool will take the contrary position in most conversations. Whereas many people would agree that, “If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well,” The fool might say, “You don't have to do things well! Indeed, it's okay to do them poorly; otherwise you'll never let yourself be a beginner at a new activity.”

The great benefit of the fool's antics and observations is that they stimulate our thinking. They jolt us in the same way that a splash of cold water awakens us when we are drowsy. Question: Where has “thinking like a fool” helped you look at a problem in a helpful way?”

Good insights and concluding question Roger von Oech… to be more creative and generate more good ideas – think like a Fool!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How-To Generate Ideas #13: Look From a Different Perspective

“If you look at a room from a different position, you will see different things.

Some things that were hidden in one view become visible in another”
(Robert Korn)

When Jonas Edward Salk, a medical researcher, was asked how he discovered and developed the first polio vaccine, he responded, “I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense, what it would be like.” He tried from a different perspective.

This is the example of ‘divergent thinking’ which means a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions (I just learned that term from Wikipedia). Looking at a challenge or problem or situation from a different perspective is an essential component of creativity. It involves the ability to quickly come up with different solutions and alternatives to a problem – and the ability to be original.

Next time when you approach a problem or situation, try to build in new ways to look at it. Maybe you can try finding ideas by picturing yourself as an object. Try imagined that you’re the other person or an audience. Try to be in the customer’s shoes or student’s minds. Try to understand it by using many different kind of chart such as column, pie, bar, line or radar chart. Try different method and language. Try to study context and history. Try to change your positions physically and engage emotionally. Try to find as many perspectives as possible. I tell you, creative ideas will flow like a river.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)