Are you a “What if?” kind of thinker? No, I don’t mean the kind of person who second guesses herself and stays stuck. I mean the kind of person who challenges statements and thinks beyond the obvious.

Last week, I was at a lab waiting to get my blood drawn for routine testing. A woman drove in on her motorized wheelchair and asked if someone owned the silver Buick parked in the back lot. The car was blocking her access to her van. (Before you think the owner of the Buick parked in the handicapped space, he was legally parked. She just needed more space on both sides of her van.) No one came forward, and off she went down the hall to the next doctor’s office. I’m not sure how many offices she had tried already. At this point, I thought that if someone just moved her van out of the space into the open lot, she could get on her way. That was my “What if?”  So I went to find her as she left yet another office. We went outside to find her van, and I backed it up. She was able to get into the van and was on her way. It was a rather simple answer to her problem, and one she had not considered.

What would you have done? Would you have tried to think of another possibility? (I should say I was number 27 in line, with 11 people in front of me, so I did have time on my hands.)

We are all in situations that can challenge our thinking. As artists, we are faced with choices every day, red or blue, solid or print, embellishment or not. As business people, we make decisions about where to market our product, which trade show to participate in. Next time you make a decision, make it and then ask yourself what if I try something different on top of the solution. For example, if you choose red over blue and a solid over a print, great. Now decide to do something different with the fabric. If you decide to exhibit at Quilt Market, ask yourself what you can do differently with your booth this time to make it different. Think beyond the obvious or what you’ve done in the past.

How have you challenged your thinking lately? Please share below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2012 at 5:55 am and is filed under Business, Coaching, Creativity, Success, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.