5 Magic Words

By Michael Roderick  -  On 03 Apr, 2015 -  0 comments

Every time I have been stuck in my life there are five words that have helped me move on. These words have led to amazing introductions, new ventures, and collaborations that have made a major impact in my life. These words are very simple and very powerful and they work in any industry. Want to know what they are?

Do you have any ideas?

They seem deceptively simple don’t they? I thought so too at first, but when I started using this phrase it opened up a whole world of possibilities in every conversation I had. The main reason these words work so well is that you basically take your hands off of the wheel for a little bit which helps you refocus. If you’ve ever been to a driving range you may have experienced a really interesting thing that happens when you swing for the first time. You hit the ball and in some cases hit it very far. After a while of hitting it well, you’ll notice that you start to not hit it as well or hit it at all. This is when brute force stops winning out over technique and you need someone to work with you on your swing. If you take the time to listen and practice the swing with the techniques the pro suggests, you’ll often get back on to hitting the ball further and you may even improve your swing.

Businesses work the same way.

When you hit a road block in your business, the natural idea is to muscle through whatever the road block is, but there are “pros” out there that can help you stop swinging so hard and get more focused on what to do with your swing. When you ask other people if they have ideas about your situation or the problem you’re experiencing, you give them the opportunity to use their talents to help you. The other person’s creativity goes to work on your problem and you’ll start to see things in a new light. When you’re stuck, you usually are so frustrated that you might not see the solution to the problem even if it is right in front of you. You need someone else to help you see the problem. To put it very simply:

You limit all of the things you can get in life when you limit other people’s creativity.

If you go to someone with your problem and you fail to ask them for their input, you lose the most powerful part of the conversation. They may tell you things that you don’t want to hear. They may also have some truly bad ideas, but they will always offer a different perspective because they don’t see things the exact same way that you do. By asking other people for their ideas, you engage them in a creative exercise and you get them using their own problem solving skills to solve the problem. In addition to this, the desire to solve problems is so powerful in us that often we will work that much harder to find an answer. That means if you present someone with your challenge and you ask them if they have any ideas, they will be more committed to solving the problem than if you come to them and say you have a solution already and all they need to do is help you implement it. Let the other person use their creativity and help you solve your problem! Ask them:

Do you have any ideas?

Very rarely will someone tell you no.

Who doesn’t have any ideas?

So take some time today to identify a problem that you are experiencing and use the five magic words.

You’ll bring more creativity into your life.

And creativity is what solves the biggest problem.

Stop swinging so hard and get a “pro” to help you.

You’ll see a major difference.

Trust me.

Excelsior!