It came to me in a dream. I was explaining the “add-subtract-change” problem solving technique to somebody. I had never heard of it before, but while awake I had been working on a book about problem solving. This new technique turned out to be a very useful technique when I tried it. It is an idea that has undoubtedly been thought of by others, but it was unknown to me until that moment.

I have had this happen before. I have had story ideas come to me in a dream, and solutions to problems. When I was younger, I even invented a way to sail my sled on the Lake Michigan ice in my dream. I tried it and it worked.

Maybe you have solved problems and had new ideas in your dreams as well. There is no doubt that it can happen, but how do we make it more likely, and more common? Try the following.

Getting Ideas In A Dream

- Think about it a lot. If a period of intense mental work on a problem precedes sleep, the subconscious mind has been “instructed” that this is important, and will continue to work on the problem during sleep.

- Write the problem down, and what qualities the solution may have, just before going to sleep.

- Practice with simple problems. See if you can get yourself to imagine a new kind of furniture, or a new poem in a dream.

- Keep paper and pen by the side of the bed. Write down any ideas you have when you wake up. The process encourages your mind to have even more ideas. A tape recorder is even better, because you can use it without a light and quickly go back to sleep.

- If you wake up without an alarm, you are more likely to remember your dreams. If you need an alarm for work, try problem solving in dreams over the weekend.

- As soon as you wake up, quickly review any dreams you can recall. This “sets” them in your mind before you can forget them. Then you can think back on them later, to see if there is anything useful there.

- If you don’t need sound sleep, try sleeping on the floor or in another slightly uncomfortable way. The repeated waking up and going back to sleep gives you more opportunities to remember dreams. I took notes on nine dreams one night in this way, and had two good ideas from them.

You can get good ideas in a dream. You can also have good ideas and solutions to problems come to you the next morning after you wake up. Review the problem mentally in the morning to encourage this latter process.

Are these scientifically “proven” techniques. No, and it is difficult to measure the “value” of an idea scientifically. What counts as an idea, if you are trying to measure the frequency when using these little tricks? Scientific proof in this area is difficult for now, but people have had productive dreams for thousands of years, and there is nothing harmful in trying to find an answer in a dream. Why not give it a try?

Getting lucky requires a certain frame of mind. This is the good-luck-generating attitude expressed in the following quote:

“If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness.” - Les Brown

The Science Of Getting Lucky

During his ten-year study of luck, professor Richard Wiseman found that lucky people use many psychological strategies to turn bad luck into good luck. They might automatically imagine how things could have been worse. This is to eliminate any paralyzing sense of hopelessness in the current bad situation.

They also look at what can be done, and concentrate on that. Obviously this could be far more productive than the alternative. Have you ever seen someone getting lucky by focusing on the negative?

You may have you heard the saying, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” That is exactly the frame of mind of a lucky person. In their minds, there are always motivating questions, like, “What can I do with this situation? Could this be lucky in some way? How can I make lemonade from these lemons?”

“The way we see the problem is the problem.” - Stephen Covey

Getting Lucky Means Seeing Problems As Opportunities

In his book, “Screw It, Let’s Do It,” Richard Branson has a great story about turning a problem into an opportunity. He and his wife were in the Virgin Islands, and the flight to Puerto Rico had been canceled. There were a lot of disappointed people, and they were all sitting around doing nothing. What could they do, after all, but wait until there was another flight?

Branson doesn’t think that way, however. He found a plane, and asked how much it would be to charter it one way to Puerto Rico. He was told $2,000. Looking around at the number of people waiting, he did some quick math. Then he took a small chalkboard and wrote on it, “Virgin Airways.” Below that he wrote “One way flight to Puerto Rico, $39.”

After the 52nd person signed up, he was making a profit. Although he didn’t actually start his famous airline until later, this was the inspiration. A problem is sometimes an opportunity - but only if you approach it that way. This one lead to the creation of a major airline.

Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” Getting lucky becomes easier when you think like that. Why not start today?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could solve problems more easily? You can. Problems you have at home, or problems from science, work, or business - you can use special techniques to help you find solutions to all of them. The following is one of the best.

A Problem Solving Story

I had written an ebook on buying cheap homes, based on our experience buying a house for $17,500. I tried to sell it without much luck. I lowered the price to seven dollars, and it still wasn’t selling well. At least I was getting no returns on the ones that sold, so I knew the readers were satisfied with it.

I had previously sold ebooks and given them away. Free ebooks are a way to generate interest in and traffic to websites. Both selling and giving away information are workable business models. Then I realized that I was assuming I had to do one or the other. It seemed like a valid assumption, but when I questioned it, I came up with a new way to solve the problem.

I gave the book away AND sold it. I left the sales page in place, but gave visitors the option to get the book free as well. They just subscribed, and then received a chapter every few days by email. It took over three months to get the whole book this way, and of course I reminded them that they could go buy it right away at any time.

Sales picked up. Nothing spectacular, but I was selling more than before. Apparently many readers like what they saw, and didn’t want to wait to get the rest. I have since used this new model for other ebooks with some success.

Solve Problems By Questioning Assumptions

The hardest part about questioning assumptions is identifying all the assumptions that we so easily and subtly make. Learn to do this, though, and you’ll have some truly creative ideas and effective solutions.

Start with pen and paper, and write a list of assumptions you are making about the situation or problem. Write down even the most obvious “truths.” Once done, begin questioning each item on the list.

Suppose a man is always arguing with someone at work, and he wants to restore peace in the office. On his list of assumptions, he might write, “I need to have a better relationship with this fellow employee,” and “We need to change our behavior.” Questioning these assumptions, he might realize that he can change his own behavior, and that will be enough, or that he really doesn’t need a better relationship. Maybe he can just stay away from this other employee.

Suppose you are a bicycle manufacturer, and you want to produce a new type of bicycle. Your assumptions may include that bicycles need wheels and that they have to be made of metal. Challenge the first, and you might imagine a “bike” with skis that hydroplanes on water when you pedal fast enough. Challenge the second assumption and you find that there are advantages to using fiberglass or plastic instead of metal.

Then you might ask “Do we really need a new product?” Maybe there is more money to be made marketing existing products in new ways. That would save the cost of retooling. Notice that this directly challenges the problem itself. Challenging the primary assumption, or the definition of the problem, can often yield the most creative and useful ways to solve problems.

Systematically questioning assumptions is just one technique. There are dozens more you can use. Make it a habit to use several of them, and soon you’ll be able to solve problems more easily and creatively.

Albert Einstein used a technique for deep thinking, which he referred to as “thought experiments.” He didn’t invent the technique, but perhaps made it more popular. It was essentially the practice of relaxing and setting a visualization in motion while watching it closely to see what might be discovered.

You may recall that he imagined himself riding a beam of light in this way, which lead to the Theory of Relativity. Elias Howe had a dream about cannibals attacking, and their spears had holes in them. This gave him the inspiration for the sewing machine he invented. There are many other examples of visual imagery leading to deep thoughts and inventions. Let’s look at why it works and how to use it.

Deep Thinking - Watch That Mental Movie

What happens with this kind of deep thinking is that you tap into the creative power of you unconscious mind. For example, when I was having trouble selling a particular ebook I had written, I imagined giving it away. I actually pictured myself handing the book to a man, although it is an ebook so there is no paper version. He looked it over, and then something interesting happened. He asked me, “when can I have more?” Only then did I notice that I had only given him a chapter.

“Next week,” I told him, and he nodded. This was the basic idea for what I actually did. I started giving the ebook away a chapter at a time by email (all set up on an autoresponder). People naturally got impatient if they liked it, and they chose to buy the complete book. Not only did this boost sales, but I hosted the free chapters on web pages where I made money on advertising.

Now, what is interesting here, is that the imagery took on a life of its own. I hadn’t predetermined a solution beforehand, only to guide the imagined scene in that direction. My unconscious mind was doing its own deep thinking, and delivering images to me that suggested good ideas.

By the way, it seems to be easiest to find solutions to financial problems with creative thinking techniques. But this particular technique is great for philosophical issues and other “deep” questions, especially when you imagine conversations with wise people. The whole conversation is your creation, of course, yet the imagined figures will often come up with ideas you wouldn’t have normally thought of. It seems likely that this is what is going on when people claim to be “channeling” individuals who lived in the past.

To do this yourself, simply start with an imagined scene that is relevant to whatever you are working on, and let that mental movie roll on its own. If you are trying to understand a moral issue, for example, start with a person facing a morally tough choice and watch to see how it turns out and what might be learned from what you see. If you are trying to boost sales at your restaurant, imagine a customer walking in to see if they like your place.

Practicing this deep thinking technique can cause you to fall deep asleep. Einstein is said to have held a rock in each hand, which would fall if he nodded off, and so wake him up and bring his attention back to the mental images that he was working with.

Do you want to be a mind reader? Well, lets get the disappointing part out of the way: You won’t be able to hear the thoughts of others, and there is little evidence that anyone has ever had this kind of ability. Most of what passes as mind reading is a mix of nonsense and psychological tactics for creating the appearance of looking into the mind of another.

The good news is that there are ways to get a clue as to what is going on inside a person’s mind. Here are several techniques you can try for yourself. I will warn you though, that these can take practice, and are not always easy.

Reading Lips

Some people move their lips when deep in thought, mouthing the words they are hearing or repeating in their minds. If you train yourself in lip reading, you can pick up on their thoughts in this way. Undoubtedly many lip-reading deaf people already do this.

It is even more common for people to move their lips to the words they’re reading. Many of us do this without being aware of it. If you observe people reading books or newspapers, then, you might catch them doing this and with practice decipher the movements of their lips to know what they’re reading. What they are reading is likely related to what they are thinking at that moment (no big surprise there), so if you bring it up in conversation, it might appear that you have a way into his or her mind - and you do.

Reading Eyes

Eyes can tell us a lot about what a person is thinking because they simultaneously show us what the person is feeling and what they are looking at. Follow the eyes, and pay attention to the total facial expression, and you may gain some insight into how that man or woman feels about things. Is he fascinated by the buildings around him? Is she disgusted by the dogs in the street?

There is another way to read eyes as well. Our pupils get larger when we see something we like, or even when we imagine something desirable. You can prove this to yourself by watching your eyes in a mirror as you vividly picture your favorite person or place. Your pupils will get bigger in a matter of seconds. This is useful knowledge to have if you want a window into another’s mind.

For starters, if a man starts talking to you and his pupils get larger as he is looking at you, it is usually a clear sign of interest. This is also true if you see a man or woman looking at someone or something else. A pupil size-change can be due to a change in light (they get larger when it’s darker and smaller when it is brighter), but if you can rule that out, watching for this is a way to see what interests people, and who they like to look at.

More than that, you can suggest an image to a person, to see what happens with his or her pupils. Be vivid in your description. Does an imagined trip to a night club elicit a quick enlarging of her pupils while your description of your favorite mountain stream does nothing? You might want to suggest a trip to the club or find a woman who likes mountains.

The Easiest Way To Be A Mind Reader

Do you have a friend who is always talking about money problems? Then you have a clue as to what he is thinking. The easiest way to be a mind reader is to be aware of the things that your friends and acquaintances are repeatedly saying. What we say comes from what we think, and what we think is usually repeated again and again.

We all advertise our thoughts on our faces, in what we read, what we do and what we say. Pay attention and you’ll soon start seeing the clues.

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