Up @#$%'s creek
How to get back downstream is what today's post is about. Today's intrepid fisherman is about to find out just how dangerous some situations can be. It looks like he'll need to use more than that little spear to get out of this one. Maybe he'll recruit the rough guys at the top of the page to help him out.
No matter what he decides it's going to take some imagination and thus begins our post.
Remember when we were kids? The stories and situations we would imagine for ourselves and the inventive ways we would come up with to get out of them? I used to imagine all the weirdest things when I was a kid, didn't you?
I wonder where it is exactly that reality sets in and we begin using our imagination less. We stop thinking "What if?"and replace it with "What for?". Inventors and visionaries are great with this question, "What if?" They try and imagine what would happen if they did something, not what they should do it for. Our government and most businesses need to start thinking like that again. Heck, we all need to start thinking like that again.
We all need to have a good brainstorming session.
If you've ever been in a good one you know what I'm talking about. If you think all brainstorming sessions are bull$#!t, then you haven't been in one that's run properly. I know, I've been in too many of those.
A good brainstorming session should ask the question, "What if?". A lot of people believe they are asking this, but what they are actually asking is, "What now?" The clock is running and we need the correct answer immediately. This is not a brainstorming session, this is an exercise in futility and quickly leads those in the group to ask, "What for?" and "Why am I here?".
A good brainstorming session should work just like a child's mind, albeit with a little, and I do mean little, more direction. It should be about opening up the floodgates of your imagination and letting it wash over the problem/situation you are trying to solve. I believe that the bizarre, the strange and seemingly idiotic imaginings of a good brainstorm are the genesis of the greatest ideas.
I'll admit, I often get bogged down in, "What for?", but I always try and come back to "What if?". It can be hard, but like anything else you have to train yourself to do it.
If you like that thought, try this tomorrow or the next day: Pick something that you need to do and run a mini-brainstorming session on it by yourself. It could be anything, even the most mundane of tasks. Look at it and instead of trying to solve it with the same old solution you've been using for days/weeks/months/years ask yourself, "What if?"
Spend some time trying to find another way to solve the problem, do the task or another way to get at or around it. You may not find a better answer, but then again you might. At the very least you might tap into that inner child we all have and have a little fun trying something new. At the most you may invent the next Ipod, Google or Sham-Wow. Let me know if you come up with something. I'd really like to hear from people that try this.
Me? Tomorrow I'm going to sit down and try to brainstorm our fisherman's way out of the predicament he seems to have gotten himself into.
Cheers!
No matter what he decides it's going to take some imagination and thus begins our post.
Remember when we were kids? The stories and situations we would imagine for ourselves and the inventive ways we would come up with to get out of them? I used to imagine all the weirdest things when I was a kid, didn't you?
I wonder where it is exactly that reality sets in and we begin using our imagination less. We stop thinking "What if?"and replace it with "What for?". Inventors and visionaries are great with this question, "What if?" They try and imagine what would happen if they did something, not what they should do it for. Our government and most businesses need to start thinking like that again. Heck, we all need to start thinking like that again.
We all need to have a good brainstorming session.
If you've ever been in a good one you know what I'm talking about. If you think all brainstorming sessions are bull$#!t, then you haven't been in one that's run properly. I know, I've been in too many of those.
A good brainstorming session should ask the question, "What if?". A lot of people believe they are asking this, but what they are actually asking is, "What now?" The clock is running and we need the correct answer immediately. This is not a brainstorming session, this is an exercise in futility and quickly leads those in the group to ask, "What for?" and "Why am I here?".
A good brainstorming session should work just like a child's mind, albeit with a little, and I do mean little, more direction. It should be about opening up the floodgates of your imagination and letting it wash over the problem/situation you are trying to solve. I believe that the bizarre, the strange and seemingly idiotic imaginings of a good brainstorm are the genesis of the greatest ideas.
I'll admit, I often get bogged down in, "What for?", but I always try and come back to "What if?". It can be hard, but like anything else you have to train yourself to do it.
If you like that thought, try this tomorrow or the next day: Pick something that you need to do and run a mini-brainstorming session on it by yourself. It could be anything, even the most mundane of tasks. Look at it and instead of trying to solve it with the same old solution you've been using for days/weeks/months/years ask yourself, "What if?"
Spend some time trying to find another way to solve the problem, do the task or another way to get at or around it. You may not find a better answer, but then again you might. At the very least you might tap into that inner child we all have and have a little fun trying something new. At the most you may invent the next Ipod, Google or Sham-Wow. Let me know if you come up with something. I'd really like to hear from people that try this.
Me? Tomorrow I'm going to sit down and try to brainstorm our fisherman's way out of the predicament he seems to have gotten himself into.
Cheers!
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