Beyond Pickles and Doughnuts

Chapter 1 excerpt from The Power of Thinking Differently by Javy W. Galindo

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We all can partake in the creative process. It is not just for a select few. While it is for the musician, the painter, the dancer, and writer, it is also for any individual who faces any decision, or performs any action, whether big or small. For all those who feel like their life is caught on a never-ending merry-go-round of work, bills, and taxes, they will never get off the ride unless they become aware of an alternative – but alternatives only arrive through thinking differently. The rainforests cannot be saved unless we fundamentally change the global thought pattern, or unless somebody thinks of a unique way to save them. We will make no significant improvement to global warming and religious conflict unless new approaches are taken or long held beliefs are altered. A business cannot successfully evolve in the changing marketplaces without the ideas needed to manifest the evolution. Nor will tomorrow bring cures for the diseases of today without somebody participating in the creative process to discover them.

In many ways, the creative process is a means of increasing the degrees of freedom in our lives. The more conscious we are of the options and possibilities inherent in every decision, the less restricted we may feel; whether it is being more creative with our careers or finances, or whether it is discovering better ways to use our time. Though creative thinking can be implemented to make our lives more complex by providing us with the capability of doing more of what we desire, it can also allow us to simplify our lives by helping us to be more efficient, or by helping us perceive the extraordinary within the ordinary.

Many of our thinking habits are useful and are necessary for our survival. Yet, there are always more ways to perceive and act in the world than through our habitual perceptions and behaviors. Too many people are hypnotized by the relative success of these habits, or the relative lack of pain from past failures, to wake up to this fact. We have the God-given ability to do differently, yet too often we do the same, knocking our heads against the wall while wondering why nothing has changed simply because time has passed.

But in order to find new possibilities and explore all the alternatives the world has to offer, we must first believe that something different is even possible.

We first must believe that there is more to life than our island of pickles and doughnuts.

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