Getting stuck? One of this method can help you.

Problem, like shadow, shall never go away

Let's face it, we can never get away from problems. And we should all have the experience of getting stuck, no matter how hard you try, there doesn't seems to be a progress in finding the resolution.

It's all because of the juice

The "creative juice" is what we need in resolving problem. The juice contains all the "nutrient" we need in solving the problem, these nutrients are what we consume everyday - the things we see, we learn and we listen. These information help us to find the best way to tackle the problem, thus, when we are stuck, it meant the "juices" is unable to circulate.

Cleanse yourself

One of the method which works very well for me is taking a bath, I have "solved" many problems during my bathing time. The sound of the shower, the isolation and the steam, establish a very well environment that I find idea is flowing around me. One of my lately encountering is designing the roadmap for my product. I need to strikes a balance along the product line and to satisfy needs of all kind and some of them is contradictory (e.g. a software solution vs a hardware solution). One night, when I am bathing, I realize that I can simply split the product into two but having one as the subset of the other.

Apart from bathing, dish washing and extensive walking can also help me to better circulate my "creative juices". The repetitive action enables me to get into the state that, idea can again flowing freely.

Zen is null

What I have been sharing is nothing magical, the activities are similar to meditation. Meditate enable us to get into a state that enable our "creative mind" to become dominant. I am no expert in Zen or Buddhism, but to describe this state of mind, I find it is close to the state "null" that we are familiar with. The state of meditation is not either an "empty string" nor "non existent".

It has been realized by a lot of people and nicely explained in various books. One book which I strongly recommend is Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware. It explains all the above with theoretical information.

To summarize the article, I would like to share a quote from Zen master Daisetz Suzuki

"Great works are done when one is not calculating and thinking."

Happy Meditation.