There is an abundance of empirical evidence available that points us towards a simple but startling conclusion: How we look at things changes how things look.    

This conclusion startles me because, quite honestly, if I’m looking at something as a problem, I am already convinced that it IS a problem and not just how I’m LOOKING at it. Now, with the conclusion in the first paragraph staring at me, I can no longer be so sure. Now I have to consider that my perspective might just be all of or, at least, a contributing part of the problem itself. Frankly, that sucks. By myself, I only have my perspective. And that perspective only sees a problem.

Even Albert Einstein was reported to have observed (and I do not quote here because I’ve found several versions of the idea): We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Something has to give. Something different, something new, something unexpected has to be introduced before a solution has reveal itself. It’s rarely a matter of IQ power or brute determination. It’s frequently the opposite…a question reframed or a sequence shifted…a pause, a step back, a waiting patiently for an intuition…an asking another person for their perspective. And the transition from seeing only the problem to opening up to a solution is made possible.

A well known politician was once asked if he was a ‘glass half-full or a glass half-empty’ kind of person, to which he replied, “Depends on how thirsty I am, I suppose.”

Funny and true.

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    Disclaimer: Poetic license is at work both here and in my books. Any errors or anomalies are through no fault of my editor. These were left deliberately at my expressed intention to clearly indicate that goodness does not require perfection.

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