Ah, Easter is over! It's been a busy time and I'm sure you're looking forward to things slowing down and getting back to normal. But maybe that includes dealing with a problem you have been happily distracted from by the activities of the season.
Before you pick up that problem again, consider this quote that came across my desk recently:
"The way that we see the problem is the problem."
I'm not sure who said it, but I know that Einstein said something similar, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
This has certainly been true in my coaching sessions, where I often find myself asking, "Is there another way to look at this?" One client, who I'll call Susan, spent the first part of the call going down a huge list of devastating problems. But by the end of the call, she came to the conclusion that maybe this was all kind of normal, and maybe the problems were actually opportunities.
That was a pretty big shift! What worked for her was when I commented that she seemed to be talking a lot from her intellect. I asked her to tap into her intuition in order to see the problem with fresh eyes.
With other clients the opposite has been true, where I hear someone coming from their gut level or heart-strings, and I ask them to go to their intellect for a few minutes and talk to me from there.
It's not about one being right or wrong, it's about tuning into your whole self. Most importantly it's getting out of whatever mindset you're in when the problem is weighing most heavily on you.
Five signs that some fresh thinking is called for
1. You're stuck.You've gone around and around and you can't quite get past the problem and you certainly can't solve it.
2. Your friends are avoiding you.As Susan said, "People are just plain tired of talking to me about this." It's disheartening to watch someone else struggle with a problem or resist possible solutions.
3. This is familiar.This same life lesson keeps coming back; the same theme around different problems. It's like a "cosmic signpost" that keeps popping up to get your attention.
4. You're playing the blame game.Whether you're blaming yourself or someone else, either way it's not helping or leading to a solution.
5. You keep trying to fix everything with the same tool.Just like you wouldn't paint your garage with a hammer, you can't apply the same solution to every problem.
If you're wrestling with some problems but not getting anywhere, now might just be the perfect time to pause and welcome some fresh thinking.
To start, create some time and space in your schedule to retreat. Use the time to read over the five signs above, and reflect on how they may be showing up in your own ministry work.
Next, picture someone you admire, whether that is someone in your life or a public figure, and imagine how they might approach this problem.
Whether or not you would do things exactly the same way, it's bound to loosen up your thinking and uncover some new possibilities.
