Have you ever met someone who knows they CAN’T do something… even though they have never tried? In fact this is rather a typical attitude among many people faced with having to attempt something new and different. You might ask them,” could you jump out of a plane with a parachute?” Of course they ‘could’… but they would reinterpret the question by substituting ‘WOULD you jump out of a plan with a parachute?”.. which is a very different question for many.
What I am suggesting is that many people have a tendency to put both feet on the brakes before they have really evaluated any concept or choice laid before them. In fact, these same people tend to start limiting their options from the very beginning… leaving themselves with one less than satisfactory outcome. However, there is a better way.
For example, we ended up taking the children to New Zealand, Australia and the south Seas in 1993 instead of Disney World when we discovered — much to our amusement — that our Australian trip was less expensive, more educational and a whole lot more fun. However, we almost didn’t look at this trip because …. it just seemed as though it had to be ‘out of our reach’. We do all this a lot to ourselves… we limit, restrict and misevaluate our options in life…. when — if we keep our minds open — there is so much more.
So, what should we do? How to we keep ourselves from ‘self-limiting’ our choices from the beginning? First, we must approach each challenge as a new product marketer would do…
1) First, we throw out a bunch of ideas without evaluating their worthiness… Where to vacation at home and abroad? List every possibility and invite the entire family to contribute.
2) Next, once we have satisfied ourselves that we have a full universe of choices, we begin to sort them based on whatever criteria we feel is most important. As for vacations… price, time alloted and potential fun maybe three factors. We research each option to insure that we have accurate information regarding how the trip relates to our criteria.
3) Finally, we have reduced our choices to a select few that best meet our criterias. At this point we may be surprised to find that a one week trip to Roratonga sounds better to us than a month long trip to Barstow with Aunt May and her 6 cats, or a trip to Yellowstone will be better than a week on the beach (or not). If you have thought honestly about your choices… a clear winner should emerge.
By not restricting your choices and considering more alternatives… you will be harnessing your imagination to develope better choices… and better choices is what makes life more exciting and fulfilling.
Sometimes, our best experiences are our simplest ones…. enjoy them as they cmoe.
Roger Freberg
Someone — who happens to be someone I love — forwarded an article posted on an internet site for unhappy academics & losers. (was that over the top — I can’t really tell?) 
What is really fun in all the nature vs. nurture debate going on is how recent discoveries in biology are causing… well… some academics to run naked into the woods screaming! I have to tell you that I just love it!