Left-brained…analytical mind…The person who thinks they’re going to solve all their life’s problems by thinking.”
Think of your mind like an extremely powerful computer. It’s great at analyzing, abstracting and reasoning. Next time you are looking through a spreadsheet or a to-do list, notice how it effortlessly orders information, matches patterns and makes snap decisions.
Yet there’s a big limitation. A blind spot. When we solve a problem consciously, we tend to shut down other alternative ways a problem can get solved. Our mind doesn’t like to admit that there’s potentially a lot of other ways to solve a problem that it is not aware/conscious of.
This week I needed to create a prototype that threaded a few disparate ideas together. I didn’t exactly know what this was going to look like, or how I would get this done. But I had done a similar task many times before. My conscious mind expected that I would sit down, think about it, and we’d reach some sort of happy conclusion. In other words, I’d use all the things I was conscious of and throw it at the problem and hope something sticks.
When I reflected on the completed prototype, I realized it had benefitted from several things that I wasn’t previously aware of. I had short conversations with several other people who had worked on similar things, and got ideas from them. I received a last minute change in requirements, that changed the focus of the prototype. These previously unknown inputs helped to create a better solution.
To allow novel solutions, we need to give up control and to some degree authorship. And that can be really, really uncomfortable. Let’s say we are really concerned about a friend who is drinking too much. We’re concerned about their physical and mental health and we’re worried something bad will happen. To help solve this problem we’ve talked to them. We’ve thought deeply about it. We’ve come up with ideas. We’ve tried all sorts of interventions, but nothing has worked. In other words, we’ve done lots of things to solve this problem for them. But one day, they drink way too much and get hospitalized from poisoning. It’s scary but they recover, and more than that, they stop drinking. They’re healthy and happy – all because they drank too much. Maybe not the most elegant solution (or the best example – don’t do this), but it worked didn’t it? In fact, problems are solved all the time without your conscious involvement.
We can also invite our subconscious mind to help out, the part of you that solves problems when you are in the shower, sleeping, walking the dogs or any other time you’re not trying to ‘crack’ the problem with sheer willpower. Another word for this would be relying on intuition over intellect. I’ve written a little more about the power of intuition here and talked about it here.
This is nothing new. And there are a million lateral problem solving methods and frameworks for you to pick and choose from. But it’s helpful to remind ourselves that we don’t always need to think our way out of a problem alone.
Buddha Bike 