#problems #solutions #PinkBat
Has a problem arisen for you? If so, do you just acknowledge it as a problem, and try to adjust accordingly?
Or, do you try to turn the problem, or problems, into a solution? It may require some creativity and imagination, but it will definitely require an open mind.
Michael McMillan discusses this concept in his book, “Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions.”
The Pink Bat has become McMillan’s metaphor for a solution from a perceived problem. As a boy, he and his friends were looking for a way to play backyard baseball without breaking windows of their houses. They replaced a hard ball with a rubber ball. Then, McMillan remembered a gift he got as a child – a pink bat, designed to help toddlers learn baseball.
To condense a longer story, the pink bat broke from use, and the boys, with the help of one neighbor boy who didn’t usually play ball with the rest, came up with a new baseball-related game, using the broken pink bat.
“We’ve all heard the expression, ‘one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.’ If (the neighbor boy) could take a discarded bat (perceived problem) and turn it into an exciting new game (solution), then what’s stopping you from doing the same?” McMillan writes.
He goes on to write that subconsciously, our brain chooses what we believe is possible, plausible and “real,” while ignoring or blocking everything else. He gives the example of a person listening to others’ conversation, when he hears his name mentioned. His brain filters automatically tell him that his name is important, thus he listens more intently.
He cites a bunch of examples of “problems” turned into “Pink Bat” solutions. They include turning waste vegetable oil from restaurants into motor fuel, and turning the methane gas from cattle waste into fuel gas.
His point is that problems become solutions by different thinking. It’s been said by many experts that we become what we think about. If you see your life as a series of problems to endure, rather than solutions to help you thrive, you will be less happy and less prosperous.
Pity pots can be comfy, but they get us nowhere. Sometimes, we have to delve into what’s not comfortable to change our lives.
McMillan says every problem is a solution, waiting for the right person to find it. If you become a person willing to look, eventually you’ll turn a problem into a solution – for you and perhaps many others.
If you’re situation is not where you want it to be, and you see yourself as a solution finder looking for something good to check out, message me.
“You can live each day in a world filled with ‘problems,’ or rise each morning and embrace a world filled with unseen solutions … eager for you to find them,” McMillan writes.
So get up. Swing your Pink Bat. Rather than see the world as a group of unsolvable problems, look at ways YOU can create solutions from those problems. Be willing to look at things you never would have thought you would look at. You might be amazed at what you find.
“For every problem, there exists a solution … or at the very least … an opportunity. But it takes an open mind to see it … and intelligence and imagination to create it,” McMillan writes.
Perhaps it’s the outsider who sees something others have missed, he continues. Perhaps being an outsider, or going outside your comfort zone, may help you see what YOU might have missed had you not looked.
Peter