Page 142 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

Use Another Tool 133

the ball well, you can’t lay down a new ball and try to replicate the
swing while the memory is still fresh in your mind and in your body. At
the practice range, that’s exactly what you do to find a good groove. It’s
the same with these thinking tools. Don’t just practice; practice per-
fectly.
If the tool doesn’t feel quite right when you first use it, stick with it
a while. You’re working against years of old habits and stale patterns
of thought. It will take some time before these new methods become
second nature. But it will happen. With repetition, that is.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Let’s say that one of these tools feels somewhat awkward as you’re
using it or the results are not satisfactory. Then maybe you need to go
back to school. I’ve made it very easy for you in this book, thanks to the
“cheat notes” at the end of each chapter.
When you have a need to review, I suggest you check out the cheat
notes first. If they don’t jog your memory sufficiently, simply reread
the entire chapter, or at least skim through it. Again, you’re working
against years of old thinking habits. Although many people experience
huge changes in their thinking abilities overnight with these tools, for
others it takes a little longer. Sometimes, the first few times you use the
tools they work quite well, but later they start feeling less effective.
Always go back to the cheat notes or reread the appropriate chapter.

USE ANOTHER TOOL

Here’s another way to deal with any difficulty you may have in learn-
ing or using any of these tools. Let’s say you’re having some trouble
with Ask a Better Question (and this goes for a beginner or even a vet-
eran like me): Use a different tool. Don’t try to fix a tool that doesn’t seem
to be working. Don’t panic. Just use another tool. Perhaps you should
try Intergalactic Thinking for a while. These tools differ from dental
tools or plumbing tools in that your plumber can’t just pick up a mon-
key wrench when the soldering iron is broken. But these thinking tools
are often quite interchangeable.
Then there are days when you just accept that one tool is going to
work better for you than another. Sometimes when I’m on the golf
course, my 9-iron just isn’t working, but what do you know? My put-