Write fifteen ways through the thing you are stuck on
Pick one problem you’re stuck on and write fifteen ways through it. Here’s how to keep going once the sensible ideas run out.
The exercise comes from Marie Forleo’s book Everything Is Figureoutable. Her idea is that every problem has a way through.
The three steps
- Name the stuck thingWrite one specific sentence. "I cannot get the business to pay me" gives you more to work with than "money".
- Write every way throughDon’t filter. Write the illegal ones, the expensive ones and the ones that need somebody else to say yes. Keep writing when the ideas start to feel silly.
- Star the ones you would tryNow you filter. Star two or three you’d try this month.
Why fifteen
Your first few ideas are the ones you’ve already been going round. Past ten you run out of sensible ones and start writing things you’d be embarrassed to suggest.
A ridiculous idea breaks a rule you’ve been following without noticing. Go through each one and ask what a sensible version of it would be.
"Ask my ten best customers to pay a year in advance" might turn up as a joke, next to "sell the car". The first one is worth a phone call.
In our workspace the list saves in your browser, and you can clear it when you’re done.
Do you have to believe everything is figureoutable?
Believe it for as long as it takes to write the list. Marie Forleo’s book is on our library shelf if you want her full argument.
Everything Is Figureoutable
It’s free in the Astera workspace, and your answers save as you go.
Try itQuestions
What is the Everything Is Figureoutable exercise?
A brainstorming exercise from Marie Forleo’s book of the same name. You list every way through one problem, then pick the few you’d try.
How many ideas should I write?
Aim for fifteen. If you stall, write a ridiculous one and keep going.
What if all my ideas are bad?
Take the most ridiculous one and change one part of it at a time until you’d try it.