After an hour-long catch-up with a friend, we were just about to hang up when I asked a question about a suggestion she made earlier. This friend is a coach, excelling at her newly found coaching practice after eighteen months in the wilderness. My question led to a full-blown coaching session.
My focus was to solve a problem, while hers was to make me examine my thinking. ‘“How” and “What” won’t be the questions,” she said, “when you know what you really want.”
Her prompt reminded me of something I read a little while ago.
‘When you focus on solving a problem, you can’t help inheriting the assumptions baked into it,’ wrote creativity coach Robert Fritz in his 1984 book The Path Of Least Resistance, ‘including a very narrow range of successful outcomes, all of which amount to, “I want this problem to go away.”’
When you take action to lessen a problem, you have less of a problem – so of course, you are less motivated to keep addressing it, argues Fritz.
When we resolve to make some improvement – in our life, our relationship, our finances, our community – it works for a while - but then it fizzles out, and we resume our old ways. We blame a lack of self-discipline or conclude that circumstances were against us.
But there’s a more intriguing explanation for this sort of defeat: what if solving the problem was the reason we fail to solve the problem?
Fritz’s suggestion, “Instead of focusing on the problem, ask yourself what do you want to create.”
If we focus on creating rather than problem-solving, we feel less discouraged by the discrepancy between what we want and what we think we ought to do.
That is the dilemma we all go through more than we like. We face predicaments arising from contradictions, variance, inconsistencies, and expectations.
According to Fritz, “Creators have a higher ability to tolerate discrepancies than most others. This is because discrepancy is the stock in trade of the creator.”
When you create, you become a player of forces such as contrasts, opposites, similarities, differences, time, balance, and so on. To the creator, all of the forces in play are useful.
When there is more discrepancy, there is more force to work with. If there is less, there is more momentum as you move toward the final creation of the result.
Creating is no problem; problem-solving is not creating.
When choosing what to create, you do not choose what you do not want. You choose what you do want.
A creator’s motivation is different. Their motivation is for their creation to exist. A creator creates to bring the creation into being.
He does that regardless of his emotions. For creators, emotions are not the centerpiece of their lives; they do not pander to them. They create what they create, not in reaction to their emotions but independent of them. On days filled with the depths of despair, they can create. On days filled with the heights of joy they can create.
As a creator, you become a river, going through life taking the path of least resistance.
More of life should be approached as creation rather than problem-solving.
Decide what you want, take stock of your reality, and then take the necessary actions to invent the outcome you seek.
Early in January this year, I started a fun project - 100 Days on Social Media - where I posted a short post and a sketch every day. The aim was to learn social media platforms, draw a sketch every day and have a bit of fun.
That 100 days are finishing tomorrow. I had so much fun that I have not only decided to continue with it but announced another 100 days project - 100 Articles in 100 Days. I will be writing and publishing 100 articles on Medium in the next 100 days.
The countdown has started. I have published four articles already. Each week I will list them here.
So You Made A Mistake, now what?
How To Thrive Even If You Have Attention Span Of A Goldfish
Dig in if you are interested.
That’s it from me this week.
Take care.
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Great messaging as usual. Congratulations on staying focused on your 100 days challenge . Now that it has become a habit .. It’s easier for you to commit to doing it all over again. Looking forward to the reads