As it says on some car rearview mirrors: "Things are closer than they appear."
Achieving what one proposes may necessarily take more or less effort, depending on many things, which will always require ingenuity and creativity.
The story of Dick Fosbury is an example of how changing focus changes results. In 1968 Dick Fosbury participated in the 68th Mexico Olympics achieving the gold medal in high jump as well as setting a new Olympic record: 2.24 meters. The funny thing about all this is the way he did it.
Until then, all those who did the high jump did so by giving the belly to the bar (the bar is the horizontal bar that is placed at a certain height between two vertical supports about 4 meters apart), in the case of Dick Fosbury this one he jumped back to it and with the nearest arm extended. This allowed him to leave less space between the jumper's center of gravity and the batten to overcome, thereby gaining height. The result is the one commented previously and from there it was the jumping pattern in this type of competition to date.
Why hadn't anyone ever tried to jump like this before? Because it involved seeing things differently. An axiom of neurolinguistic programming states that if you keep doing things the same you should not expect different results. Thus, the big problem when we face challenges is not the way to solve them, but the way we approach them. This for a simple reason: all problems have some solution, but not all visions can find it.
That is why the short-term advice to leave things to solve tomorrow when they are complicated is very useful. Just giving our mind the opportunity to "reset" often allows us to see things from another perspective.
There is an exercise that I apply in my workshops to demonstrate how the solution to challenges is sometimes right in front of us and we still do not see them: a 2 x 2 meter mat is placed and a candy in the center. Participants are asked that with nothing but their body and without stepping on the mat, they are able to grab the candy. Some stretch out, others ask for help and grab them, but they can't. In the end (if no one has figured out how to solve the problem), I just squat down and roll the mat until I reach the candy, taking it without ever stepping on the mat.
Our mind is very powerful but it also needs help to solve the problems it faces differently. How can we help you? Here are four suggestions:
- write the problem as detailed as you can and read it again, it will give you another perspective, changing actors and circumstances, talk it over with someone and listen to their comments, it will give you another perspective, try to write a song or a poem that talks about the problem, it will give you another perspective, and / ovete to sleep and pick up the problem the next day.
All of the above options take the mind out of its usual circle from where it is focusing on the problem, make other parts of the brain work, or simply give you a pause in your reasoning.
As the saying goes: if things have a solution, why bother? and if they don't have it, why bother? More than worrying, the question is taking care, just remember that as it says in some car rear-view mirrors: "things are closer than they seem."
