It’s All In Your Mind

My husband has the unique ability to take what I might consider to be a broken pile of junk and find a new and functional use for it. The inside tub from a washing machine transforms into a barbeque pit, circular plastic shower curtain hooks on a clothes hanger become a necklace organizer, broken pen caps have become anchors for wall screws or the perfect way to carry a small stack of toothpicks out to the picnic area. He has never met a jar or container that could not be put to good use.  Thinking “outside of the box” does not happen easily for everyone.  There is a term in motivation and psychology called “functional fixedness.” It is a cognitive occurrence that causes one to see only one “fixed” use.  In functional fixedness creativity is stifled.  Daniel Pink in his book, Drive:  The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us equates functional fixedness with a block wall to motivation.  Do you ever find yourself in a place where you cannot see beyond your current situation or you feel that there is only one possible solution?  Ask God to help you to retrain your thoughts and to give you a burst of creativity. 

Isaiah 43:18–19a “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (New International Version).

Pink, Daniel H. (2011). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. [Kindle Fire Edition]. New York, NY: Penguin Group.