Jon Samsel

Sometimes ideas and answers become stifled by our limited point-of-view. We’ve all heard someone comment, ‘You’re too close to the issue. You need an objective opinion.’ And they are right. The closer we are to a problem, the less likely we are to come up with an innovative solution to the dilemma.

Let’s look at an example. A Harvard medical school graduate may, in fact, be a certified scientific genius. However, the scope of her life experience does not make her any more prepared to handle say, a flat tire, than you or me. In fact, the more we become an expert at any given area, the more likely we are to limit our creative minds to a finite number of possible ideas and answers. Why? Sometimes we limit our solutions to obvious answers. That’s called laziness. Other times our creative environment is filled with too many distractions such as deadlines, overly hot weather, a family illness, or an upcoming exam.

You may have heard of the following riddle:

Unfold a newspaper and place it on the floor. How can two people stand on the newspaper without being able to touch each another?

Here are two possible answers:

1. Place the newspaper in a doorway and close the door. The person outside the door stands on her portion of the paper and the person inside stands on her portion. The closed door prevents them from touching.
2. Tear the newspaper into two pieces. One person stands on the first piece of newspaper while the other person stands on the other piece of paper (placed on the floor ten feet away).

In order to free yourself from these creative limitations, it is essential that you occasionally change your point-of-view. By altering perspectives, we are able to view something in a new light––the way others might see them. Complex problems suddenly seem incredibly simple to solve. Answers become obvious.