Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Changing your perspective is a very valuable tool for understanding a situation better and avoiding false views. Reflecting on a situation in a new way is a great way to solve a problem. Shifting or even combining perspectives makes our minds work on a problem differently. But how do we cultivate the ability to look at things differently from the way we typically look at things?

Overcoming Fears

The first step to be able shift your perspective is to overcome the fear. That fear of rejection, the fear of what’s out there and the fear of “not good enough”. You have to challenge your assumptions; your what ifs.

What Iffing

What-iffing allows us to create a completely new reality, to establish a new chain of being or relationships and to generate a new perspective on a problem. What-iffing pushes you to produce something new. Innovative solutions to a problem require the mind to be directed in a different direction. To avoid the old easy traps to solve a problem, Challenge yourself by asking What if?

Percy Spencer was an American engineer and inventor.

One day while building magnetrons, Spencer was standing in front of an active radar set when he noticed the candy bar he had in his pocket had melted. Spencer was not the first to notice this issue, but he was the first to investigate it. He decided to experiment using food, including popcorn kernels, which became the world’s first microwaved popcorn. In another experiment, an egg was placed in a tea kettle, and the magnetron was placed directly above it. Spencer then created the first true microwave oven by attaching a high density electromagnetic field generator to an enclosed metal box. He experimented and Raytheon filed a patent on October 8, 1945 for a microwave cooking oven, eventually named the Radarange.

Challenge your assumptions

When we make assumptions, we’re limiting ourselves to a narrow view of things. You have to break out of the narrow view and be willing to look at things through a different lens.

You always dreamed of becoming a doctor but you didn’t try to pursue it because you assume that it would be too difficult for you. Challenge your assumptions; Ask yourself why is it difficult? What makes it difficult? What are the possible ways? What are your strengths? Why should you not achieve your goal?.

Once you have overcome your fears and you are now more open to the outside world. Creative thinking will come in. This skill is one of the key steps to get there; “SUCCESS” . Creative thinking acknowledges and rejects the accepted paradigm to come up with new ideas. Creative thinking skills use very different approaches to critical thinking skills. They involve a much more relaxed, open, playful approach. This can require some risk-taking. Take the risk and explore what’s out there.

Explore what’s out there:

1. Learn and study new things

Gather new books to read, ones that you don’t usually have interest to. Computers are another useful tool to find facts and study things. There are a lot of subjects you can read online. As you study new things, you will encounter complex problems and tricky questions could pop in your mind. Eris Solver is a very useful website to extend your knowledge of many disciplines and adopt a different point of view regarding complex problems. It is a free crowd-solver for complex problems. It implements an innovative way to solve complex problems by adapting brainstorming technique to a Problem Tree Analysis and by channelling Collective Intelligence.

Learning these new things exposes us to new ideas that could help up solve our complex problems and helps us stay curious and engaged. It also gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps boost our self-confidence and resilience.

2. Travel

Traveling increases our knowledge and widens our perspective. To view new customs, different ways of living is fantastic for the mind. It gives us a new perspective about life and especially our life, it can help us change some of our habits or even create new ones.

3. Try new things you haven’t tried before

New experiences increase our resourcefulness by living situations you would never encounter at home. Going out on a limb to try something new takes confidence. Showing yourself that you have what it takes will only make you feel better about yourself. You will surprise yourself and realize the potential you’ve held all along.

As Organizations will face complex and ever-changing challenges; this is why constant and creative thinking skill is necessary to stay ahead in the competition. You need to have the eagerness and determination to welcome possibilities. You have to be open to ideas when they are still new: look for ways of making things work and pushing the idea to its limits.

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Thomas Specq is the founder of the innovative website Eris Solver, a free crowd-solver for complex problems. Connect with him @ErisSolver.