“Life is a bowl of cherries; beneath a thin layer of sweet stuff, it's mostly just the pits.”
“When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”
“Plan against both the most probable and the most dangerous course of action by your competitors. Branch off and do sequential plans for these contingencies. Continuously update your intelligence on the competition. Know not only your competitor's position, strengths, and weaknesses, but your own. In battle, you need to know who's on your left, right, front, behind, and up.”
The metaphors we use say a lot about who we are and how we think, don't they?
Metaphors are bridges of thought, allowing us to express difficult concepts by relating the unfamiliar to the familiar. Every metaphoric thought-bridge begins in the impressionistic, right-brain world of abstract thought, then extends through the mental mist until it touches down in actual experience; that factual world of left-brain, analytical thought. Firmly anchored now in the dual worlds of thought (abstract and analytical,) your metaphoric bridge has become symbolic thought, the most powerful type of thought known to man.
Symbolic thought is a language unto itself, allowing us to say what cannot be said by any other means. Metaphors, music and mathematics are each different forms of symbolic thought.
Do you see Life as…
– a Battle in which everything is a struggle or a competition?
– a Garden in which relationships need to be cultivated like flowers?
– a Mission, because you have the truth and need to convince others of your point-of-view?
– a Journey where you travel from place to place, meeting new people and exploring?
– a Building, which must start with a solid foundation before adding rooms and floors?
– a Roller Coaster, consisting of ups and downs and you're just along for the ride?
– a Stained-glass window, full of light and colors?
– a Mountain to be climbed, full of levels of promotion?
– a Race to be won, (against the Joneses, perhaps?)
– a Courtroom, because everything in life should be fair?
– a Series of Stepping stones? You're barely comfortable before you start looking for a better place?
– a Prison, because you feel like you don't have any choices; others have all the power?
– a Classroom, because there are always new lessons to be learned? *
Metaphors are powerful, but dangerous, since they will often lead us to accept relationships as the metaphor represents them. When you use a metaphor in business, the meanings you give to yourself, your products and your competitors will determine, to a large extent, how you will act.
New metaphors have the power to create new realities.
The key to thinking “outside the box” is to adopt a different metaphor for the problem you're trying to solve. Change your metaphor and you'll also change (1.) the perspective that you bring to the problem, (2.) the language that you use to describe the relationships between the components of the problem, and (3.) the outcome of your planning session.
Roy H. Williams
* Thanks to Dr. Leonard Holmes for his help with the section, “Do you see Life as…|”