[TID-BITS] : RESOURCEFULNESS
When I find myself needing to be resourceful in a non-critical situation, I delight in “forcing” myself to come up with solutions. By looking at these situations as “opportunities” to find creative solutions—without the pressure of a solution being necessary—I find myself having fun and being energized by the process – and being somewhat proud of the outcomes! The practice gives me “thought energy” which I can translate into how I think about larger problems in my work and daily life.
[examples].
The Rough-Skinned Man
At a wedding, a male friend asked me if I had any lotion. Um – no? Being a woman, I was a little offended by the association. But being a good person I figured I might as well try and him out. It dawned on me that, given the venue, there would probably be lots of primpy items in the women’s lounge! Sure enough, I found the guy some lotion in the women’s bathroom. Problem solved!
Dead Batteries
My wireless keyboard died, and I was completely out of AA batteries. Although a good excuse to pop over to Target, I thought to myself, “What the heck even uses batteries anymore?” Then I remembered the collection of old TV remotes sitting in the junk basket (yes, basket) and sure enough, two of the remotes still had working batteries in them!
Extra Onions
Onions: the one food aversion that I simply cannot overcome. So I was rather disappointed when I discovered the bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables I bought had an annoyingly equal amount of peppers and onions. I picked the onions out of the bag, but felt a tinge of guilt throwing away perfectly good, albeit disgusting, onions. Luckily my fiancée loves onions, so I “compromised” in pawning them off on him by cooking up a wonderful sauté of onions, apples and bacon, which I stuffed into some Crescent Rolls I found in the fridge (which may or may not have had an expiration date in June of 2016) and baked to a lovely golden brown.
Thoughts from reading (Cracking Creativity, pp 195-226)
- Similar differences
- How analogies can help us make connections between seemingly unrelated things and make sense of “new” or different things by framing them in reference to something that is known
- Forces a deeper and quicker understanding of the issue or new idea at hand
- Looking for something you don’t know exists, then knowing it when you find it
- Nature walks
- “Thought incubation”
- Random word lists