Reason

I have been reading a book, one that I have read, or maybe played around with is a better way of saying it, in the past. It’s called Thinkertoys. You can purchase this book on a variety of platforms on the internet, so I won’t include a link here. I really enjoy this book. The purpose of the book is to get your creative juices flowing. It is set up with lots of different exercises, some for the right side of the brain, some for the left. When I start to feel stuck in my business, in how to proceed, these exercises come in handy to help me see things differently.

In my business I run into so many problems that, at first seem insurmountable. But that kind of thinking only keeps me stuck in the same rut. It is through seeing things differently that we can start to see solutions that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. That is what I enjoy about this book, it helps me get out of the rut, and not only out of the rut, but completely away from the problem, so that I can see the problem from a distance, for what it is. Then, it really focuses in on just little specifics to see how the possibility of changing just one small thing might affect the whole. The next activity will come at the problem from a totally different angle than the first and might have you focused in on a totally different aspect. But in working through several of these challenges, it gives me a new perspective to the problem.

Not sure who exactly said this quote, it’s been attributed to Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. This is something that I have seen happen in Church callings, in jobs that I’ve been on with my husband, working in a variety of jobs before my kids were born, and I’m sure I have been guilty of doing it as well. We say, “That’s just how it’s always been done.” I know in my business, when I get most frustrated, it’s because I really have tried the same thing several times, waiting for a different result. But looking at it from a fresh perspective sometimes even fresh eyes, like my husbands or children’s, I start to see things differently, maybe I missed a critical step, maybe they have had some experience with a specific element. It is surprising to me how often they will make an offhand comment that is the lightbulb that I needed, the new way of seeing, it pulls me out of the rut. Progress doesn’t occur in a rut, it happens when we make a new road, and this book helps me to see a new direction. Ok, one more quote:

I remember reading this when I was preparing to homeschool my kids for the first time. I was scared that I would mess them up, that they would get behind, that I wouldn’t be able to help them. But this quote really helped me to see that it wasn’t totally about curriculum. Training the mind to think and to reason is so important and will take us so much further in life than any education, not that education isn’t good, and we should all focus on learning new things every day, but in learning to think and to reason we have the ability to process, keep the important, discard the unnecessary, and know the difference. Education helps us hone in on a specific interest, but the ability to think and reason helps us make something great out of what we have spent the time learning.

How does all this tie into art? It is the creative process that makes art beautiful, but every artist has dry spells, has moments, or longer periods of time when they don’t feel inspired. Coming at art, business, family, or whatever we have going on in our lives, from a new perspective renews the energy in that part of our lives and helps us move forward more motivated to create something better. I love when I feel inspired in any aspect of my life. If you are feeling unmotivated in your life, your job, whatever, try coming at the problem from a new angel. The possibilities are only limited by our unwillingness to look, to see, and then to change.