Thinking Outside Your Head

Being creative requires some confidence in yourself and the creations you may produce. If we lack confidence, it is likely due to some fear. Since we are taught from our earliest years to gain the approval of others, when we have a new idea, we first measure it against our fear or fears and if we feel it will gain laughter or scorn for us, we cast it aside – regardless of how great it may be.

The Foundation of Breaking Through Boundaries
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When considering the breakthroughs of others, we might gain some confidence in remembering that some ideas that originally seemed ridiculous soon became the basis for major breakthroughs. Then, some ideas once thought to be good ideas, turned out to be errors that also led to major breakthroughs.

I once heard a story relating a fictitious parallel to the space race to the moon. In this story, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and Japan were all racing to be the first to reach the moon. The major obstacle to be overcome was weight. The fuel was very heavy. The weight of the fuel required for the rocket to break the earth’s gravity, travel to and land on the moon, and then blast off again breaking the moon’s gravity to return to earth, would be too heavy for the rocket to leave the earth in the first place. This presented the proverbial rock and hard place.

Thinking Outside Your Head
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In the real space race to the moon, the real creative breakthrough came when one of the scientists overcame what fears he may have had and suggested that the whole rocket didn’t need to be landed on the moon’s surface. Pursuing this idea resulted in the development of a lunar module, and Neil Armstrong landing on the moon in 1969.

Why Didn’t I Think Of That Before? Try A New Approach
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In the story of the fictitious space race, Japan was able to win the race by being the first to land on the moon. At first, I thought this was obviously fiction, but then I heard the reason. The storyteller revealed that the Japanese avoided the rock and hard place problem by building a one-way rocket to the moon. In the light of such deeply held traditions of commitment and honor, the Japanese astronaut landed on the moon, raised the Japanese flag, and then committed suicide for the glory of the emperor.

How Can I Put This To Use Today
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Start by never assuming you have the whole truth or all the facts. What information or beliefs do you think are true that might not be true? What beliefs or facts could you change?

Then, suggest every imagined approach to a problem or obstacle. Be as imaginative as possible. When we get outside the limits or walls of our head and give our confidence to our creativity, the breakthrough ideas we need to overcome our present problem usually reveals itself.

Erik Milligan
Copyright © 2005