Roland Byrd

Mind & Body Fitness Coach

Archives for May 2016

The Power of Creative Problem Solving

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Thinking Outside The Box really means Useing Creative Problem Solving.

Creative Problem Solving Can be a Life-Saver!

Have you ever had a problem that seemed unsolvable? It happens! I’ve faced many issues that initially stumped me in both my personal and business life.

The question is, what do you do when this happens? Do you walk away and say, “Forget it!” or do you ask yourself question like, “What am I missing?”, “Who can I ask for help?”, or “Is there another way to approach this?”

The benefit of questions like these is they encourage creative problem solving. You often hear people talking about Thinking Outside The Box. What they’re really saying is Use Creative Problem Solving.

What is Creative Problem Solving and How Can We Apply it in Our Lives?

Here’s a real-world example.

My brother and I were driving on back-roads in Montana in his beat-up old Suburban, The Orange. It was bright orange, like a construction worker’s vest and though the name wasn’t terribly original, it fit perfectly. We were camping with a few friends in some remote spot and were on our way back to the nearest town to grab some supplies.

That was one of the best things about living in Montana, back then—yes I just said back then—you could pick a dirt road and drive until you found an isolated spot to set up camp. You never worried about anyone camping nearby. And forget the “pay for a spot that’s surrounded by people in camper-trailers” nonsense. That’s not camping! That’s pretending. If you’ve never been camping in a spot that’s so isolated you could go for days, maybe weeks without another person walking or driving by, then you haven’t been truly camping. But sadly in our current times finding a spot among a swarm of other “campers” is the best you can get in most states.

Back to the story.

We’re ripping down the dirt road, clouds of dust billowing in our wake…

BANG!

The Orange lurched and started to wobble. We’d blown a tire. My brother gripped the wheel tightly, let off the gas, and slowed to a halt in the middle of the dirt road.

Inspecting the damage, we found the right-rear tire had blown out. It was shredded beyond repair. No big deal. The Orange came complete with its own full-sized spare tire. We’d change the tire and be back on our way.

The Orange had a standing ratchet-jack, one of the kind that stands about three feet tall with a head that ratchets up the center post using a long lever arm. These jacks are great for vehicles with high clearance because they can quickly and easily lift the wheels of the ground. We got the jack out and started to set it up.

That’s when the creative problem solving came into play.

The lever arm was missing. We searched the entire vehicle and couldn’t find it anywhere. Without that arm the jack was useless. There was no way to lift the Orange, no way to change the tire.

The dirt road we were on might see traffic once or twice a month. And this was before cell phones were common. We were stuck with two choices. Either we figured out how to change that tire or we walked about forty miles to get help!

I was a strong teenager. I thought I could muscle the jack up without the lever. So I set it up in the middle of the rear bumper and lifted the head as far as I could. Then I centered myself over the short arm—where the lever would go. And I used all my strength to press down and ratchet that jack. Yeah…I moved the jack three clicks, that’s about three inches, just enough to start putting weight on it.

After that I tried various other methods including pounding on the ratchet arm with a hammer, jumping on it, and having my brother and friends lift the bumper while I did these things. We got another 4 clicks lift. The tire was still firmly on the ground.

We were discouraged. It seemed there was no hope. My brother was loading up his pack, getting ready to start walking when I had the idea to dig under the tire.

Why not?

We were on a dirt road. We had a shovel. If we couldn’t lift The Orange high enough to change the tire, we could take the ground out from underneath the tire!

I grabbed our camping shovel and attacked the ground around the blown tire. The digging was slow. It was hard packed, washboard gravel. Taking turns we finally cleared a hole that was deep and wide enough to let us remove the tire. Then we tried to put the new tire on, but because the tire was fully inflated, the hole was too shallow.

Back to digging.

We finally made it deep enough to slide the spare tire in and mount it.

Then we had a new problem. There was no way to lower the jack. Because of the jack’s design, as long as it was fully weighted, it took as much force to ratchet the jack down as it did up…

Luckily The Orange was 4-wheel drive. We locked the front axles, made sure everyone was clear, and then kicked it in gear and lurched backward. (If we’d gone forward the jack would have damaged the back of The Orange when the upper post swung into the tailgate.)

It was rough, but we were finally on our way. All thanks to creative problem solving.

So the next time you have a dilemma turn on your creative muscles and discover the power of imaginative problem solving.

Always Remember:

You Are The Master of Your Destiny!

Roland

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How to Deal with Life’s Surprises

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Changing your focus helps in dealing with life's surprises.

Life’s Surprises

How Changing Your Focus Changes Your Life

Life is full of surprises, unexpected things that can easily alter the path we’re on. Sometimes the surprises are small. Sometimes they’re huge. Sometimes they help us and sometimes they set us back. Regardless, they can alter our life’s course in ways that either improve our lives or not. It’s up to us because the way these things change our lives depends on how we interpret the events, on the meaning we give them.

For now, let’s talk about the unexpected things that set us back. They’re the ones that can derail us if we allow them to.

It’s a simple concept and maybe because of that it’s one of the things we—as humans—have the hardest time grasping. We get to choose what we do with our lives. We get to choose whether unexpected setbacks are small hiccups—spiritually, psychologically, emotionally—or whether they’re roadblocks.

Understand, the difference between a hiccup and a roadblock isn’t in the surprise itself. The events don’t change. They’ve happened and cannot be undone. It’s how we see them, feel them, hear them, the way we internalize these surprises and what we decide they mean makes the difference. That’s what impacts how they shape us.

That might seem odd. Think of it this way. We choose how we interpret events. The choices we make shape our perception of life. Our perception of life shapes the choices we make which in turn shapes the way we choose to interpret events. If we regularly give disempowering meaning to life’s surprises, the pattern creates a nice negative-feedback loop.

If we’re unaware of this we can easily fall victim to learned behaviors and steadily spiral in the direction of the loop we’re stuck in. Each cycle then reinforces the last. We release our ability to consciously shape our lives.

Living with the belief that we’ve no say in our lives is a sad state indeed. But what happens when we stop the cycle?

Changing your perspective changes your life.

When We Break the Cycle of Negative-Feedback and Start Choosing the Meaning We Give Events, We Truly Step into Our Power because We Start Choosing Our Life Instead of just Accepting It.

Here’s an example of how powerful it is to change the meaning we give something.

When I was in high school I was a mediocre student. I got A’s and B’s in the classes I cared about and Cs and Ds in the classes I didn’t like. I loved science and disliked math. That’s an odd disparity perhaps, but it’s where I was at the time.

When it came time to pick my senior year classes I wanted to take Physics. I got an unpleasant surprise when I found that a pre-requisite for Physics was pre-Calculus. I’d never taken math above Geometry—and I’d failed that because I never did the homework or studied.

It seemed I was stuck.

At that point I could have started beating myself up mentally for not doing better in math. I could have complained about how unfair the system was. I could have felt sorry for myself and blamed others for my situation. In truth; those were behaviors that were normal for me back then.

But I really wanted to take Physics! So instead of doing those things—and reinforcing those patterns—I did something unusual for me at the time. I took action!

I mustered my courage, went to the teacher, Mr. Jose, and I pleaded with him to let me try the class. I told him I knew I could do it and that I’d transfer out if I wasn’t cutting it.

He agreed to make an exception and let me enroll.

I had to study and get some help in the beginning because the higher math concepts were new to me, but overall, once I discovered how math was applied in Physics, it came easily to me. I ended up with an A in Physics for the year—quite a feat for someone who’d never had the pre-requisite math before taking the class!

As you understand, when our desire for something is great enough, we’ll step outside our comfort zone and take unusual action. When we change our focus it changes the meaning of things. When my desire to take Physics overrode my pattern of self-defeating behavior, I viewed the fact that I didn’t have the required courses as a setback instead of a roadblock. That’s what helped me have the courage to speak to Mr. Jose about taking his class.

As you go through the day today remember that you choose the meaning of the events in your life. Do your best to discover the positive in all situations. Do this. Make it a habit and you’re life will change dramatically.

Always Remember:

You Are the Master of Your Destiny!

Roland

#Success #ChangeYourFocus #MasterYourDestiny

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