Lesson 5 Unlock Your Original Thinking
Out of the Box with Original Thinking
Original thinking is the ability to think outside the box, to look at a problem, and to figure out a ____, creative solution for it.
Many people choose to safely follow the path others have already paved, but it is difficult to ____ something exceptional in this way.
More often those who think differently achieve lasting success because to address the challenges of tomorrow, it’s essential to adopt a fresh approach distinct ____ yesterday.
So, how can individuals cultivate ____ thinking that leads to outstanding achievements?
Generate a Lot of ____
If you ____ to have good ideas, you must have numerous ideas.
Traditionally, ____ follow the saying that they prefer “quality over quantity.”
However, in the case of ideas, quantity and quality are ____ important.
Highly creative individuals do not actually produce better ideas than ____ ones.
Instead, they ____ more ideas.
Their increased idea output means that they are ____ likely to hit on something brilliant.
An excellent example is Pablo Picasso. ____ is famous for a handful of artworks.
However, few people realize that ____ portfolio includes 2,800 ceramics, 1,800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures, and more than 12,000 drawings.
Again, only a ____ of them became famous.
Likewise, ____ composed over 600 pieces before his death at age 35, only a handful of which are recognized as particularly creative.
Einstein also had more than ____ publications, but many of them didn’t have much impact.
The lesson ____ is to produce a large volume of work.
This way, you have more of a ____ that one or two will be outstanding.
Just pour out whatever comes to mind and separate the ____ from the rocks.
Don’t Rush
We are ____ told that procrastination is our worst enemy.
____ every self-help book describes successful people as being those who can overcome procrastination.
However, several ____ of genius have stemmed from procrastination.
Great ____ know how to utilize procrastination as a strategy in their idea production.
Procrastination encourages gradual progress rather than rapid progress, which ____ your brain open to a wider range of ideas.
____ procrastination may be the enemy of productivity, it can be a resource for creativity.
Few people ____ that Leondardo da Vinci was a chronic procrastinator.
It ____ him 16 years to complete the Mona Lisa.
Some of the ____ that took his attention away from work, like learning optics, transformed the way he modeled light and made him into a much better painter.
What ____ Martin Luther King, Jr.?
The original script of his speech, believe it or not, didn’t ____ the words “I have a dream.”
The night before the biggest speech of his ____, he was up past 3 a.m. rewriting his script.
He was sitting in the ____ waiting for his turn to go onto the stage and still writing notes on his script.
____ he got on stage, 11 minutes in, he heard Mahalia Jackson, his favorite singer, cry out: “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”
Encouraged by a shout from the audience, he drew upon ____ of his past talks, and the result became the landmark speech “I have a dream.”
By delaying the task of finalizing the speech until the ____ last minute, he left himself open to the widest range of possible ideas.
The text ____ set in stone, and he had the freedom to improvise.
Fight the Status Quo
The hallmark of originality is ____ the default and finding out if a better option exists.
Your ability to do things ____, to question and refine the way things work is what makes you creative and different.
Your ____ browser is a pain? Change it! You don’t like the system?
____ so! You have a new idea? Try it! You see a better way of doing things?
Test it! ____ people won’t take any risk.
They’ll just stick with what they know, thinking it’ll be good ____.
But if you think that you can change things, then your originality and your creativity could make a big difference in the ____.
The founders of an online eyewear company, for instance, couldn’t understand why it was so hard to find an ____ pair of glasses.
They thought the ____ was interesting, so they conducted some research.
They found that just one company ____ 80% of the market.
As a result, they ____ a company that no one expected to thrive.
Instead of depending on only physical stores where customers ____ try the eyeglasses on directly, they created a business where you could simply order inexpensive, high-quality eyewear online.
Using this business model, they were able to offer glasses that normally cost $500 for ____ $95.
In addition, every time a customer purchased glasses from ____, they’d make a donation to charities.
All of this was possible because they ____ on the Internet.
The online eyewear company has, without a doubt, ____ successful.
It was voted as the most innovative business by a world-leading ____ magazine.
The company grew to be worth more ____ a billion dollars.
Anyone could have noticed the problem with expensive glasses in ____, but it took courageous pioneers to find the answers.
Rules and systems are ____ by people.
This means they can be changed by people as ____.
It’s a good ____ to challenge the defaults.
We often ____ that original insight is primarily a matter of nature: you are either born with it, or you aren’t.
But from a different perspective, it can be ____.
The above stories, however, show that original thinking can be improved ____ our effort.
It turns out that we are all original ____ in process.