#10 – Look at it this way
After spending a significant amount of the last 2 years working from home (and enjoying it), I’ve begun to commute again. One of the things I like to do while on the train for 40 minutes or so is to challenge my brain with a sodoku puzzle. I enjoy solving puzzles, both the sense of frustration as you arrive at a point where you struggle to find the way forward, as well as the breakthroughs when you spot a solution which unlocks the rest of the puzzle, and the sense of achievement when you’ve completed the challenge. I’ll be honest, there are times I feel pretty stupid staring at the page for far too long, only to find a solution and wonder why it took me so long to see (but that’s part of the torture I seem to enjoy subjecting myself to)!
One thing I appreciate about sudoku in particular is the various approaches that you can use to either exclude or identify which numbers go in which gaps. For anyone unfamiliar with sudoku, my noob layman’s explanation is that, for any of the nine 3×3 boxes or the nine rows of columns, you can either look for the numbers that are missing (making sure there are no repeats in any row, box or column) or flip the thinking and take each number in turn to see where it could or can’t be placed. Alternating approaches when you get stuck is really helpful and can really unlock a tricky puzzle.
In life, as well, a change of perspective can often help us see problems or situations from an unexpected angle, from which the solution can be easier to see (or at least, a path to a possible solution might present itself).
It can be very difficult to remove ourselves from a tricky situation and look at things from a different angle, but I am realising that this can also help us see things from a totally different perspective, and allow us to challenge our own assumptions, perspectives and prejudgements. Trying to look at a situation from a different point of view is challenging, especially with big decisions or emotive situations, because we often automatically revert to the point of view we first experienced things from.
With emotive situations it can really help to take a time out to reflect and put yourself in the other person’s shoes to get a better understanding of how they perceived a situation. This is not easy but can be very enlightening and help you process your own understanding of what’s going on and come to terms with it.
You might still have your own view, but having an appreciation of the other person’s perspective can opens up possibilities to find a way forward. Without understanding where the other person is coming from, your own narrative can get in the way.
Taking this approach has certainly helped me adapt to some situations which didn’t fit my normal way of seeing things.
Also with more mundane topics, a couple of steps left or right (either literal or metaphoric) can allow you to see and appreciate elements that might not otherwise be visible when assessing a situation, allowing you to see more of the big picture. Likewise switching from a “what we can’t do” to a “what can we still do” mindset can really help find a solution where one might otherwise be elusive. Another fun one that seems to work surprising well is to flip the problem on its had and say “if I assumed I could make it work, how would I go about it?”, which is a paradigm shift that’s helped me approach a number of problems that I didn’t think had a solution. And this one works in sudoku too, because we know there is a solution, even if we can’t see it!
So, sudoku: Not merely a way to stave off boredom on public transport, but carrier of enlightenment and teacher of life lessons too!
Have you approached a situation from a different angle recently? How did it go?
Thanks for reading!
– Phil G
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