Page 139 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

130 CONCEPTUAL SOLITAIRE

WHAT HAPPENED?

When you continually reprocess a topic and push it in different direc-
tions, particularly if you do it quickly and succinctly, a number of
things can happen:
• You can solve the problem. Just by throwing a great deal of con-
centrated energy against an issue you can actually force a
solution.
• You can make progress toward a solution even if you don’t fully solve it.
The progress brings the ball farther down the field, even if it’s
not a touchdown, so that you might be able to solve it later.
• You discover the real problem. Many people who have used this
process have told me it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem
they tackle, but sometimes, just as important, it helps them
identify the problem behind the problem.
• You realize the problem isn’t a problem after all. Or at least you
find it’s less of an issue than you thought.
• Sometimes you gain or release responsibility. Maybe claiming a
problem that you think is someone else’s fault causes you to
see your own role in it. Maybe the process helps you release
your responsibility, “Screw ’em. Let them deal with it.”
In all cases you gain perspective.

The worst thing you can do is to just sit with a problem.

Psychologist and author Wayne Dyer says, when you have a prob-
lem, “Do something.” What? “Anything.” Don’t just sit with it. A for-
mer chairman of 3M, when put on the spot by the press about his
company’s penchant for “stumbling over” new ideas, is reputed to have
said, “You can’t stumble if you’re not moving.”