In his book, Creativity and Problem-Solving, Brian Tracy recommends “mindstorming” your biggest challenge. Start by taking a sheet of paper and writing your most pressing problem at the top of the page in the form of a question.
The more specific the question, the better. For example: What can we do to increase our sales from $100K to $250K per year over the next 12 months?
Then, begin writing answers in the first person, using a specific action verb in your answer.
1. We hire and train 5 new salespersons.
2. We introduce 3 new products to our customers over the next 12 months.
Continue writing until you generate at least twenty answers. As you generate answers, keep asking, “What should I do more of or less of? What should I start or stop doing? Don’t worry about quality, just quantity.
The last 10 answers will be the most difficult, and sometimes by the twentieth answer, you’ll feel like giving up, but you must force yourself to write at least 20 answers.
Sometimes the answer will jump off the page at you and quite often, that last answer is the breakthrough.
So, what’s your biggest challenge and have you tried “mindstorming” it?