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It’s all too easy to think in the same way that we are used to – for our thoughts, feelings and habits to get stuck in a rut. This need not last, however: you can learn to think differently!

Ways to help you think differently:

• Try a new approach. Move on from the “we’ve-always-done-it-this-way” approach and rethink things, both logically and creatively.

• Think positively. If you tend to always raise objections about how and why something won’t work, stop yourself and try to view a situation constructively instead. If you combine your natural caution with a new optimism, you may be able to improve the plans.

• Reconsider yourself and your career. Look at your work situation from a fresh perspective. Is there room for improvement?

case study The British designer and engineer James Dyson challenged accepted ways of thinking when, in the 1980s, he launched the first bagless vacuum cleaner. He had been frustrated by the way that conventional cleaners lose power as the bags fill up with dust and dirt. Delivering more power to the vacuum cleaner may have been one (partial) solution, but instead, Dyson adopted a different way of thinking. He started from the premise that vacuum cleaners were no longer ‘allowed’ to have bags, and this led him to devise an entirely different approach – the cyclone system – which has proved remarkably successful.

• Think creatively. Change from narrow to original thinking. If you have trouble developing innovative, creative ideas, try using a device such as the pattern diagram (Secret 1.6) to help fire your imagination.

• Change your habits. It can help to learn new skills in order to give you a broader set of tools for tackling work and solving problems.

All of these ways of thinking differently involve taking risks. If you are naturally cautious, you may be unwilling to take risks. Think why this is. Here are some possible reasons:

• “I don’t want to make a fool of myself.” The response to this is simply, “does this really matter?”

• “It might not work out.” The response to this is to quote the saying, “a person who never made mistakes never made anything”.

• “It’ll take a long time.” Well yes, it may, but think how you learnt to drive or how you learnt a foreign language. Weren’t these incredibly worthwhile skills that took some time to learn?

Just because you have done things in a certain way in the past doesn’t mean you have to follow that way always. You can change your way of working.