Leaning into a life of possibilities requires a combination of mindset, skill and process

“Thinking in terms of possibilities sounds simple but it is in fact a complex skill. Possibility thinking requires both imagining what is not there and creating paths to it, so that it can become a reality.”

– Constance de Saint Laurent (lecturer in psychology at Maynooth University) and Vlad Glăveanuis (professor of psychology at Dublin City University) in article at psyche.com

The authors recommend that we use the following steps to explore what is possible and how we might be able to turn some of those possibilities into reality:

1. Ask yourself ‘What for?’

The key to solving any problem is to be clear about what you want to achieve. Before creating your map of possibilities, explore what your aims truly are.

2. Ask yourself ‘What if?’

Now get a pen and paper and start creating your map. The what-if exercise will get you started and involves exploring what solutions become available if you imagine that certain constraints or obstacles are removed.

3. Ask yourself ‘What would someone else do?’

This exercise involves imagining what others would do if faced with your issue – or you could ask them directly. Don’t gather opinions as advice on what you should and shouldn’t do. Instead, look at them as alternative paths that you can use to widen your map of possibilities.

4. Ask yourself ‘Why not?’

Look at the solutions on your map and be your own opposition – argue with yourself about why you believe some solutions are possible or impossible. Debates, even with yourself, are a wonderful way to expand your horizon of possibility.

5. Ask yourself ‘What else and how else?’

Find even more alternative solutions by looking at the possibilities on your map and asking how else you could reach the same goal, then expand on these answers by asking what else you could do instead. Turn your impossibilities into opportunities and your possibilities into a host of new and original solutions.

6. Use your map.

Reap the benefits of your hard work: explore your map, imagine what it would be like to implement each possibility, make a plan for what to do next, and start experimenting. After all, possibility thinking doesn’t take place in the head but in the world.

(from article at psyche.co – link below)

https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-use-possibility-thinking-to-solve-problems-creatively

© Dana Cogan, 2024, all rights reserved.

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