I am a nanosecond
A nanosecond is one billionth of a second. How would you explain the length of a nanosecond? One billionth of second is unimaginable small. However, some smart people came up with the idea to transfer the time problrm into a space problem. They discovered that in one nanosecond light travels app. 30.48 cm. Thus, by using a simple strip of paper, which is 30.48 cm long, they could make one nanosecond visible - and understandable.
For comparison: In one second light travels app. the distance between the earth and the moon!
According to Roger von Oech, who mentions this example in his book, metaphors - in which one connects a common with a rather uncommon or complex area - are often very helpful in developing creative ideas and thoughts.
As an ecxercise, von Oech challenges the reader to turn his/her problem into a metaphor to find new ideas how to solve the problem. I applied his advise to one of my personal problems, to set and to live (!) priorities. So, here comes my problem metaphor: My problem is like picking cherries from an overfull cherry tree. I know I can’t pick them all, but I want to, because they look so tempting and if I don’t pick them, they will rot away or the birds will pick them. Whenever I start picking from one tree branch, I see promising overripe cherries on another branch.
What can I do? Get helper to pick the cherries, or focus on one branch only, or accept that I will not be able to pick them all, or ….
I have not yet found the perfect solution, but the metaphorical problem definition has stimulated my creative thinking - and it was fun:-)
How would you solve the picking cherries problem?
Can you also make a metaphor for your problem?
References:
Oech, R. v. (1998). A whack on the side of the head. New York: Warner Business Books.