WHILE WE DON’T OFTEN THINK ABOUT IT, every day we have an opportunity to positively alter our lives and those of other people. How? By bringing possibilities to life.
Regardless of the realm we are focusing on, possibility is about the ability to see something in our imagination or in our heart — and then, taking steps to make it materialize. In my work at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design — the ‘d.School’ — I have developed a framework for manifesting possibilities for our life, family, work and dreams. The four one-word steps look deceivingly simple:
1. See
2. Start
3. Do
4. Finish
Sounds easy enough, but the reality is that these behaviours don’t come naturally to us. In fact, they are counterintuitive to how the human brain functions and to our innate evolutionary disposition. As a result, our physiological tendencies, the constructs of our built environment and our own emotions all get in the way of step one, and we can’t begin the process.
In this article, I will share some insights about the first of the four steps in my framework: Seeing. Interested readers can learn all about the other three steps in my book, Make Possibilities Happen.
Ten years ago, at the conclusion of the Creative Gym—a course I teach that focuses on, a Taiwanese brain surgeon, approached me and asked, “Am I different now?” I told him, “Of course you are; you just completed 10 weeks of creativity training!” He quickly shot back, “No, I mean, is my different now?”
