“Getting caught up in facts and figures leads to a lack of imagination.“ So uttered The Grasshopper on Sunday.

There’s a lot to unpack in his brief statement. Facts and figures usually serve as our bread and butter strategies for coming up with solutions. That falls under the broad catagory of “figuring it out.”

But when that strategy fails, we go looking for more facts and figures and we head down a rabbit hole of additional information that may make us more informed, but less likely to solve our ridddle.

The Grasshopper reminded us years ago that when the odds are 50-50, even science goes out the window. That’s where imagination comes in.

When you get caught up in facts and figures and you feel you’re getting nowhere, it’s time to employ the magic words that spark imagination: “What if.”

Years ago, I learned a phrase in my NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) training that has gotten me and many clients off the trail to nowhere. When someone would say, “I just can’t do that,” I would respond with, “What if you could?” followed quickly by “What would you do?”

“What if” gets you out of the certainty of facts and figures and into the land of possibility by engaging your imagination.

That’s why Zen Buddhism uses koans in their teachings. A koan is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle used to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment. A modern day koan I remember is, “If your knees bent the other way, what would chairs look like?” Good luck figuring that out.

“What if” gets you off of facts and figures and into a frame of mind where they’re not allowed: Imagination.

What if you put this imagination inducing strategy into your kit and brought it out from time to time? It will take you out of hardened concrete thinking and into the creative realm of the sublime.

All the best,

John

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