1322: A counter-intuitive approach to problem solving

If you feel like you're just too close to the problem, or you're sick of thinking about it and not finding helpful solutions, I've got a slightly random idea for you!

Episode transcript:

Good morning, Daily Peppers, and a very happy Wednesday to you. So I've got an unconventional one for you today. If you are noodling around on a problem, you're trying to solve something, you're looking for inspiration, or you're trying to come up with a new idea. Now, when we do this, we tend to look in likely places. Say, for example, you've got a business. You might turn to the business books that you've bought in the past. And for a lot of the time, they might be really helpful. But what is also really helpful is using your own creativity and letting your brain wander and finding ideas and solutions in the most unlikely of places.

One of the brilliant things about our brains is its ability to make connections with completely opposing things or completely random shit. And that can really be when the magic happens. But so often, our logical brain takes over. We try to get really strategic and pragmatic. And we look in this, quote, sensible places. And sometimes what ends up happening is we're too close to it that we just end up staring at something. It gets frustrating, and we're no further ahead. So whether you're noodling on a particular problem, or if you're too close to it to see it clearly, or if you just fancy a different perspective, try intentionally looking in the most random of places.

I'm thinking for myself right now, I'm trying to tackle something in my business. And I'm just looking at my bookshelf, and I'm thinking that I am so close to the problem. I will probably find a solution or something really helpful on my book of the history of Eurovision than I would some of the business books I've got even though it feels pretty counterintuitive, quite unproductive, and, yes, very random. Here's where I'm coming at it from. If you're sick at looking at the same problem and not coming up with any new ways to solve it, just try something completely different. You might not find what you think you were looking for, but you could find something completely unexpected that's better than you could have imagined. So here's to finding inspiration in unlikely places. Here's to putting our brilliant creative brains to use. And here's to looking at what's right under our nose. I'll see you tomorrow.

Transcription produced by Castmagic.io

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