New Way to Solve Problems: Get Physical

Got a problem? Want new insights on how to solve it?

Then keep reading ...

In April of this year, I spoke at a career seminar in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Among the presenters was Dr. Norman E. Amundson, a professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of British Columbia, who gave an outstanding talk on problem solving.

I took a lot of notes while he spoke; one page is pictured below.

We've all been stuck on a problem before. You rack your brains for a solution. You turn it over in your mind. You sit and stew. And all you get is a headache.

Why not try a physical approach instead? Dr. Amundson referred to it as "walking the problem."

He asked the audience to picture a problem we were trying to solve as located on the other side of the room. Then, he said ...

"Instead of walking toward the solution from the problem as a starting point, we should walk toward the problem from the solution.

"How did we get there? Thinking this way creates new patterns and gets you unstuck.

"Looking back at your problem while standing 'in the solution,' you might 1) not see a problem at all; and 2) take a different route to the problem or move at a different rate -- there are many ways to solve a problem.

"By starting from the position of 'problem solved,' you start from a position of strength, with a broader perspective. As a result, you will work with more energy and excitement."

Try this physical method for solving problems today. I've used it before with remarkable results.

Example: I don't get writer's block. Ever. Why? Because, any time I get stuck for more than 5 minutes on what to write, I get up from the keyboard and walk away. I imagine the ideal sentence will be sitting on my chair, waiting for me, when I get back. It may take 30 seconds of walking before I find the sentence sitting there ... or 20 minutes. But I always get a solution of some sort after I finish walking.

Kooky? Quirky? Who cares. It works.

Now. Would you like even more expert ideas to solve problems and grow your business?

If so, I'd like to give you my speaker notes from a three-day, $5,000 marketing seminar, put on by Jay Abraham in Los Angeles.

The speakers were phenomenal: Seth Godin, Stephen R. Covey, Stephen M.R. Covey, Marshall Thurber, John Assaraf, Donald Moine, Andy Miller, and others. If you can't find at least a dozen money-making ideas from these 25 pages of notes, you ought to move to Cuba ...

You can download my $5,000 seminar notes here.