Life Coach Corner: One Hour to Save the World

I’ve been hanging out with Julia Roberts. The OTHER Julia Roberts – a fellow life coach with a Masters in Creativity Studies. Luckily for me, she is teaching a workshop on Creative Problem Solving. I could not enroll fast enough because I am SO bored with solving problems the old way. You know…the way we learned in school with all the data, pro-con lists, mind-numbing analysis, blah blah blah.

As with most things, there is a better way.

Albert Einstein already knew this when he said, “If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.”

Got Problems?

Let’s start by thinking backwards. What is your wish? Maybe you want to play the banjo. Or you’re itching to restore a vintage motorcycle. It can be tiny or huge, practical or not. Simply pick a wish that feels delicious.
Make a list of all the reasons you want this wish. Try to come up with eight or more reasons. These are the aspirations that fuel your wish.

Now make a list of what is stopping you. Push yourself to find at least three reasons.
Choose one thing that is stopping you and turn it into a challenge. For example:
Wish: I want to bend spoons with my mind.
One thing that is stopping me: I don’t have any spoons.
Challenge: What might be all the ways I could acquire spoons?

Using a challenge statement in this way shifts your thinking to a more creative area of the brain, the neo-cortex. The word MIGHT becomes quite mighty in creative problem solving. You can also try statements such as HOW MIGHT I… or IN WHAT WAYS MIGHT I…
You can apply any of these might-y questions to whatever is between you and your wish.

To solve my spoon challenge, I could buy, beg, borrow, barter or steal a spoon. I could ask my neighbors for spoon donations. I could launch a Save Your Spoons campaign. I could hang out at Baskin Robbins.

Strive for 20 or more ideas. This will push your thinking beyond the familiar and into discovery. You may end up with an abundance of ridiculous ideas, but you need only one solid solution in order to take action.

Try it. You might like it. Einstein said so.

Got Soul?
Your soul came with a plan. Your life has a purpose. Do you believe in that crazy woo-woo stuff? Me too – and it’s not too late to figure it out.