THINKING IN UNCONVENTIONAL TERMS

I enjoy reading books by Clive Cussler. It doesn’t matter what series – Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files/Kurt Austin, Oregon Files, Isaac Bell, or Fargo Adventure – the lead characters in each are known for ingenuity and resourceful thinking. In fact, in Blue Gold by Cussler and Paul Kemprecos the following dialogue occurs: “Ingenious. How did you come up with that technique?” “It was simply a matter of thinking in unconventional terms.”

No matter how daunting the situation Cussler’s lead characters find themselves in, they in no way allow the situation, problem, or issue to get the best of them; they always come up with a resourceful solution to whatever they are facing. Because of their willingness to think outside of the box, they are never defeated by their problems.

While mulling these thoughts, the following quote kept coming to mind: “You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.” Edwin Lewis Cole provides us with this sage advice and it is a great reminder that it isn’t our problems that defeat us (falling in the water), but rather our inability to come up with an unconventional, unique, resourceful, divergent solution (just staying put in the water).

Isn’t this how we sometimes feel when we are facing or dealing with change? It isn’t the change itself that may get the better of us. It is our inability or our unwillingness to deal with whatever changed; to deal with the shift out of our comfort zone. It is when we stay rooted in the same spot that we run into trouble. When we stay focused on the situation at hand and feel there is nothing we can do about it and keep thinking that way, we are doomed because those thoughts become reality. (It’s the ol’ self-fulfilling prophecy.)

When change turns our world upside down, it is very important to try and “right side” our world by finding a way or ways to make it through the challenges the change presents us. We need to tap into our ingenious self so we can be inventive, creative, and divergent in coming up with a way, with a solution to move us “out of the water.”

Resourcefulness is about optimizing what we have to work with. It is not just about creating something new; it also applies to making old things work better or work to our advantage. So, what can we do to tap into our resourceful, our ingenious self?

Give yourself the “third degree.” Ask:

Is there another way to get what I want?

Is the desired result really the best result?

Who else has information that might help me?

What is something very similar to what I need that might also work?

Who is the expert in this area?

What is one more thing I can try?

Is there more than one way to look at or deal with the issue?

What would someone I admire do in this same situation?

Maintain an open mind. Being open minded about new possibilities is critical to implementing resourcefulness. Develop a curiosity about things. Expose yourself to new ideas and new experiences.

 

Question tradition and habits. Sometimes the way something is always done (habits, traditions, learned rules) can be a “block” to being ingenious or resourceful. Sometimes creativity requires us to go beyond the conventional.

“Don’t worry…be happy.” As Bobby McFerrin’s song says, “Don’t worry…be happy.” The more relaxed we are, the better we will be able to think creatively. We need to take the stress and pressure off of ourselves.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Look for a solution that someone else has already created. Start there and tweak what is out there to fit your needs.

Make your network work for you. Build and maintain a network of people you can call on for questions and support.

Practice seeing things differently. A cloud is just a cloud is just a cloud. Not so. Really look at clouds. There are so many different shapes and figures.

Develop a creative uses for common things list. Take an object and think of all the potential uses for it: traditional, standard, absurd, silly.

Ask a young child for suggestions. Children are naturally unconventional thinkers. When trying to be innovative, a young child’s take on an issue (presented to them in a way they would understand) might provide a spark of creativity that provides just what is needed for the issue at hand.

Practice kaleidoscopic thinking. Take all the pieces for the situation (write out the pieces on index cards) and play with arranging them in different configurations.

Gain a fresh perspective. Visit someone or someplace to experience something different from the norm. This may provide new ideas or a way of taking the ‘kaleidoscopic piece’ of one’s life and helping with the rearrangement. Talk to someone who has a totally different point of view on the issue or situation. (Think of the story of the blind men and the elephant. Depending on what part of the elephant was touched, the perspective on what the elephant was like, differed. Look at the pieces of the situation in this manner to help gain other perspectives.)

Being ingenious, being resourceful will definitely help us avoid the “deer in the headlights” syndrome when change has us floundering “in the water.”  It will give us an edge in problem solving and in meeting challenges.  So, the next time change ‘knocks you in the water’ think in unconventional terms to help you ‘get out of the water’ and into a space in which you are comfortable and can work through any challenges the change presents you.

 

LOOKING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

Happy 2015! Welcome to the New Year! Raise your hand if part of your transition to the change of the New Year was to reflect on 2014. My hand is up. I did spend time reviewing the highlights of the year as well as the challenges. One of the items in my reflection that was both a highlight and a challenge, and on which I am still reflecting, is my book Facing the Sunshine and Avoiding the Shadows: Strategies to Stay Sane and Positive amid Change, and the blog (which came about as a result of the book).

In my blog reflection, I took a look at what was covered (primarily so I could get a handle on where I wanted to go with it in this New Year). Wow! We covered a lot in 40 posts:  information on 35 strategies for dealing with change was shared.

I am big on the use of acronyms to help others remember ‘stuff.’ Sixteen of the strategies came from my book, Facing the Sunshine and Avoiding the Shadows: Strategies to Stay Sane and Positive amid Change, with PRESERVING SANITY as the acronym. Those strategies are: persistence, relationships, enthusiasm, sense of humor, ending something, roaming the wilderness, vision, irreverent thinking, negotiating roadblocks, giggling; savoring mistakes, “atta” persons, new style of thinking, innovativeness, taking risks, and you have to dream big.

Another 10 strategies can be found in the acronym BE POSITIVE: balance, eager beaver, passion, outlet, saluting others, inner child, transformation, ingenuity, vitality, and easy going.

SMILE contains five more strategies (self-esteem, modification, introspection, laughter, and exuberance) while CALM represented another four (can-do attitude, adapt, learn to let go, and moving forward).

                                                           

Did you happen to notice that the acronyms also provided a hint as to things we need to do when dealing with change?

We need to preserve our sanity and not let change get the best of us;

We need to be positive as an optimistic outlook will certainly help us navigate the change more successfully;

We need to smile since doing so helps us project a more positive image, calms us and reduces stress, and makes up feel happier; and,

We need to remain calm so we can maintain our perspective and not over-react.

In addition to strategies for dealing with change, we also explored what change is and why it is so difficult, the emotion of disappointment, the importance of concentrating on the positive, and the mindset of looking at change as an opportunity. And, four of the very early posts were “housekeeping” ones – who I am, why I wrote the book, how the book can be of help, and an overview of the book’s strategies.

Certainly this blog went well beyond the 16 strategies in the book. As I look to the blog and 2015, I will continue to focus on strategies that will help you deal with change. In addition, I want to look at how change makes us feel and how to deal with those feelings or reactions. And, I will be addressing topics that are coming from you, my faithful followers.  So, perhaps we all will be well served by ‘looking back to move forward.’  Continue  your reflection/introspection to help  you on your journey in this new year.

MASTERING CHANGE WITH A CAN-DO ATTITUDE

Over the past several weeks, we’ve explored types of thinking (irreverent thinking, new style of thinking or thinking beyond the conventional, and innovative thinking) and qualities (ingenuity and resourcefulness) that help us solve problems and meet challenges when dealing with change and transition. This week, we are going to focus on our mindset, our attitude when change and transition enter our lives.

OK. Raise your hand if you remember the children’s book The Little Engine That Could. For those not familiar with the story, there is a little train filled with good things – toys, food, candy -that suddenly stops. A passenger train with a shiny new engine passes and when asked to help replies, “,,,I pull the likes of you? Indeed not!” Next comes a freight train with a big engine and when asked to help the little train, it replies, “… I am a very important engine indeed. I won’t pull the likes of you!” Another train comes along. It is a rusty, old, tired engine. When asked to pull the little train, it replies, “I am so tired. I must rest my weary wheels. I cannot pull even so little a train as yours over the mountain. I can not. I can not. I can not.” Finally, a little blue engine comes by and the plea for help is once again made. It replies, “I’m not very big. They use me only for switching trains in the yard. I have never been over the mountain.” The little train pleaded and the blue engine said, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.” The blue engine hitched herself to the little train and kept saying, “I think I can.” The blue engine was successful in getting the little train to the top of the mountain and all the way down the other side, it said, “I thought I could. I thought I could. I thought I could.”

The blue engine is a perfect example of something that demonstrated a can-do attitude. A can-do attitude can be defined as a process of convincing your mind that you can do everything. It is about believing in yourself that you are capable of being successful in what you plan to do. It’s about finding ways to make things happen instead of making excuses about why things can’t happen. It’s the ability of overcoming problems and obstacles that come in the way of success. This type of attitude is characterized by an eager willingness to accept and meet challenges.

A can-do attitude is one of the keys to successfully negotiating change. When you have a can-do attitude, you believe in yourself. You are more willing to be proactive, to take action, which is needed when dealing with change and transition.

I have two stories to illustrate how a can-do attitude can help you negotiate change.  First, in my May 12 post on HOW DREAMING BIG HELPS MANAGE CHANGE, I introduced you to my cousin, Adam, who played football in college and who had his sights set on playing in the NFL.  In the May 19 post on WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, WILL YOU BE READY TO OPEN THE DOOR, I shared that while Adam had not been selected in the draft, he had been invited to several NFL teams’  mini-camps as well as to special “screening” with one team.   While he did well at all of these, there was still no invitation to join a team.   Instead of giving up, Adam adopted a CAN-DO ATTITUDE.  He continued to work out, focusing on what would make him stronger, faster, better at his position of tackle.  He certainly kept his focus on what he wanted and what it would take to get him there.  He was like the blue engine who kept saying, “I think I can.  I think I can.  I know I can.  I know I can.”   Well, his can-do attitude paid off.  On July 31 he got the call he had been waiting for.  On July 31, he got picked up by the New York Giants and last night, August 3, he played  in his first NFL game!  Adam believed in himself; he believed he was capable of being a successful football player.  He worked to make his dream happen.  He definitely mastered change in his life with a can-do attitude!

My second story, about another athlete, was shared with me by a workshop participant.  It is so relevant to our current discussion. In the early 2000s, a women’s professional tennis player, Nadia Petrova, was having a spectacular tennis season, either winning or playing for the championship in several tournaments. A TV interviewer interviewed Nadia’s new coach and mentioned that Nadia, who was rated in the top twenty players in past years, was fast becoming one of the top five players in the world. The interviewer asked Nadia’s coach about this, and the coach said, “In the past, Nadia had people around her that concentrated on what she ‘can’t do.’ So Nadia would concentrate on what she couldn’t do, especially in challenging situations on the court, and it would frustrate her. I am concentrating on what she ‘can do,’ and she is a much better, confident player and is mentally much happier.” So I ask you, do you concentrate on the “can’t dos” or the “can dos?”

Your attitude toward change counts for a lot. There are four basic attitudes that make or break successful change:

• The “Can and Will” Attitude
• The Can and Won’t Attitude
• The Can’t and Will Attitude
• The Can’t and Won’t Attitude

As you might imagine, people with the can and will attitude negotiate change in their lives with the greatest success.  Which attitude currently describes you? If it isn’t “can and will,” let’s explore how you can move yourself in that direction.

1.Set Can Do Goals. Set goals that move you toward successful results. People fail because they don’t know what they want or what they don’t want.

2.Set S-M-A-R-T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals that create a clear roadmap for your success and then, work to achieve these goals every day.

3.Take Care of Your N-E-T-S (Network with Everyone Today for Success). Fill your NETS with positive people that will support your positive “can do” attitude. These people, while supporting your goals, will also help you pass roadblocks to achieve your goals. Clean your NETS of people who have a “can’t do,” negative attitude, and who don’t support your quest to achieve your goals. The more junk (negative people) in your NETS, the less room you have for more treasure (positive people). Keep your NET strong with positive people.

4. Choose ‘I can do it!’ as your life motto.

5.Look at any  failure as a stepping stone to success, as an opportunity to learn and improve. Go outside your comfort zone by trying something different. Keep trying new things until you succeed.

6.Always be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. See all problems and stressful situations as challenges and opportunities. Remember, life  is an adventure. Be always enthusiastic about it and all that it brings.

7.Concentrate on the Positive. Recent research shows that 75-80% of daily communication is negative. This would include negative self-talk, conversations with others, or the media (TV, radio, the internet, etc.). Take back control of your mind and be responsible for your “can do” attitude. (Watch for a future post that will provide ways to help you focus on the positive.)

As Denis Waitley says, “If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.”  Be like the little blue engine and no matter what you are facing in the wake of change and transition, tell yourself, “I think I can. I think I can.” Pretty soon you will be saying, with a smile on your face, “I thought I could. I thought I could. I thought I could!”

LESSONS LEARNED FROM MacGYVER ABOUT DEALING WITH THE CHALLENGES OF CHANGE

To date this month, we’ve been focusing on strategies which help us think differently in times of change and transition. We’ve covered irreverent thinking, a new style of thinking or thinking beyond the conventional, and innovative thinking. This week we shift focus to the quality of ingenuity (or the quality of being resourceful). But, because ingenuity often requires creative thinking, it provides a new transition strategy for the skills set we are developing for staying sane and positive amid change.

Ingenuity is defined as the quality of being clever, original, inventive, and resourceful. Ingenuity is a component in the process of applying ideas to solve problems or meet challenges (just what we need to be doing in times of change and transition).

Many of you will recall the television show MacGyver, about a guy whom I consider a model for ingenious solutions to challenging situations. He routinely disarmed bombs with paperclips and used gum wrappers to fix fuses. While most of what MacGyver did seems far-fetched, there is a lot to be said for his out-of-the-box, unconventional, divergent thinking.

How can the quality of ingenuity or being resourceful help in times of change? When things change, they become different. Some changes are so major that our world gets rocked and we lose our comfort zone. How things were done or accomplished prior to the change may not work in the new environment. Being ingenious, being resourceful means that we have the ability to approach the new, the changed in different ways; we can pursue solutions from more than one direction.

Resourcefulness is about optimizing what you have to work with. It is not just about creating something new; it also applies to making old things work better or work to your advantage. Imagination plays a HUGE role in being ingenious and resourceful. Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not perceived through the senses. It is the ability of the mind to build mental scenes, objects or events that do not exist, are not present or have happened in the past.

I had to be very ingenious and resourceful when I once lost one of my dad’s favorite fishing lures. When my parents retired, they did so to a small community in the NW corner of Pennsylvania. Close to their property was a fishing pond that everyone in the area could enjoy. After casting with my dad’s favorite lure, I sat back to await the tug of a fish on the line. Instead of a fish, I snagged a bunch of weeds and got the lure hopelessly tangled in the weeds. Not wanting to tell my dad what happened (although the veteran fisherman that he was, he would have understood), I decided to try and retrieve the lure. The lure was too far out for me to walk and get it (and the water was too cold to think about swimming for the lure). There wasn’t a rowboat in the area. BUT, there was an old mortar box near the lake. So, I turned the mortar box into a boat, used a stick as a paddle, and “rowed” on out to the weed patch and the lure.

It wasn’t long before I figured out that someone must have abandoned the mortar box – water was filling the bottom from numerous holes and cracks. I was persistent and continued to venture to the bunch of weeds where I did successfully retrieve the lure. I also had luck on my side as I made it back to shore (more wet than when I started) safely. And, I arrived back with the lure. Resourcefulness/ingenuity saved the day and my dad’s lure.

Imagination gives us the ability to look at any situation from a different point of view. A few hours each week, I work in the Scott Township Jazzercise Fitness Center’s child care room with young children. One day, I had several girls who wanted to be doctors. They were very resourceful in creating an environment for this.   Under a table served as the hospital emergency room. Chairs were lined up for the patients. A mat was placed on the floor and served as the bed. Items from the Craftsman work bench were transformed into medical supplies: Philips-head screw drivers were syringes; pliers became stethoscopes; the vice, a blood pressure device. (And when the goggles and tool belt went on when one of the girls was going to perform surgery, I had to stifle a hearty laugh!)

Imagination is a creative power that helps with doing just about anything. It is a creative power critical to tap into in times of change. In times of change, channeling our inner child and our MacGyver may propel us to satisfying solutions.

How can we develop MacGyver’s ingenuity or our inner child’s imagination? Try these techniques:

1.  Give yourself the “third degree.” Ask:

Is there another way to get what I want?

Is the desired result really the best result?

Who else has information that might help me?

What is something very similar to what I need that might also work?

Who is the expert in this area?

Is there more than one way to look at or deal with the issue?

What would someone I admire do in this same situation? (WWMD- What Would MacGyver Do?)

2.  Maintain an open mind. Being open minded about new possibilities is critical to implementing resourcefulness. Develop a curiosity about things. Expose yourself to new ideas and new experiences. 

3. Develop resourceful habits. Consider alternate uses for an object before throwing it out. Redecorate a room using things you already have. Recycle old calendar pages to create personalized cards.

4. Question tradition and habits. Sometimes the way something is always done (habits, traditions, learned rules) can be a “block” to being ingenious or resourceful. Sometimes creativity requires us to go beyond the conventional.

5. “Don’t worry…be happy”As the song says, “Don’t worry…be happy.” The more relaxed you are, the better you will be able to think creatively. Take the stress and pressure off yourself.

6. Don’t reinvent the wheel Look for a solution that someone else has already created. Start there and tweak what is out there to fit your needs.

7. Make your network work for you. Build and maintain a network of people you can call on for questions and support.

Being ingenious, being resourceful will help you avoid, as Einstein says, the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It will give you an edge in problem solving and in meeting challenges. It will be of particular help if you are “roaming the wilderness” (see the June 16 blog post).   If you haven’t used your imagination in a while, haven’t had to be resourceful, you might just surprise yourself with your actions and the outcome!