Have you played this delightful game?
Q: Where do you want to eat?
A: I don’t know, what do you know want? I don’t know, what do you want? (repeat for a thousand years)
We don’t know what we want . . . ever . . . about anything.
We stuggle to identify the solution, the answer, the next step, the approach, the timing, etc. Extracting this information from our fickle minds is more challenging than grasping the nickel that elusively rests between the car seat and the center console.
Oddly and interestingly, identifying what we don’t want is a piece of cake.
“I don’t want Pizza.” . . . “The answer is not five” . . . “The next step is not painting our faces purple”
When we try to identify the singularly correct answer, we subconsciously suffocate from the perceived committment associated with selecting ONE item from a universe of possibilities. As a result, our decision making neurons become paralyzed.
Identifying what we don’t want requires no such committment and is, a result, a more comfortable process.
I don’t want to work in a cubicle . . . I don’t want to work in customer service . . . I don’t want to have eight bosses. (Movie for a gold star?)
When was the last time you approached a question or challenge by first identifying what wouldn’t work? Consider how quickly and effortlessly your mental inertia is overcome by doing so. Often, after the “don’t want” or “won’t work” options are identified, “the answer” is all that remains.
For evidence of how effective this process can be, watch this 4-minutes video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vKA4w2O61Xo
