Be Resourceful Not Lucky Part II
by Kate Nasser | 6 Comments »
Be Resourceful Not Lucky: 15 Ways to Overcome Challenges
In part one of Be Resourceful Not Lucky I outlined 5 steps to start finding your resourcefulness. Now that you’ve begun, here’s the pathway to go further and keep it going.
Be Resourceful Not Lucky Part II – 15 Steps to Go Further!
To be resourceful, let your mind expand beyond your current thinking and your actions beyond your normal pattern.
- Look at objects from different angles. Here’s a helpful post 37 Extraordinary Ways to Use Everyday Objects Differently.
- Collaborate to learn various ways to be resourceful. It shows you views you’d never consider. Collaboration is a stronger path than you might think!
- Replace the desire to be perfect with the desire to learn. Trying to be perfect can block experimentation — the key to learning and resourcefulness. Perfectionism is a disease not a goal.
- Let need ignite your initiative and creativity. As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention — and resourcefulness! Ask yourself, how can I solve this problem with whatever I have?
- Stretch outside of the moment — backward and forward. When I was in grammar school, a science test had the question: Which blood cells are associated with iron? I didn’t remember the teacher ever teaching this. Instead of guessing, I remembered a TV commercial for an over-the-counter drug that increased the iron in your blood. It showed faded blood cells that turned red. I picked red blood cells and got it right. Be resourceful not lucky!
- Look at the pieces if the big picture overwhelms you. Anytime you feel overwhelmed, unfreeze your mind by finding parts you recognize. Problem solve from there.
- Recombine and reapply what you already know. Your mind is a treasure trove of knowledge, experience, and insights. If you combine all of that in different patterns, the possibilities are infinite.
- Focus on essentials not extras. With ideal conditions and limitless resources, you can easily create the extras. When times are tough, pare down your list. It quiets the noise and chaos. Be resourceful and create the essential results.
- Picture yourself as well-known inventors from different eras. Inventors see a problem and invent a solution. What would Thomas Edison do? How about Joy Mangano the inventor of the Miracle Mop and Huggable Hangers? Visualizing yourself as an inventor can awaken your resourcefulness and creativity.
- Let scarcity ignite your resourcefulness. Modern trends are to reduce scarcity by going into debt. In decades gone by, people addressed scarcity with resourceful thinking and creative actions. Take that path and you develop lifelong resourcefulness.
- Consciously break your patterns and habits. Long before a problem presents itself, get used to doing things differently. Then when an unsettling moment arrives, you will be resourceful not afraid. Take change consultant Alli Polin’s advice, Rock your boat.
- Know the difference between persistence and resistance to change. When you start something do you find it almost impossible to let it go and try another approach?
Remember, there are three parts to resourcefulness: initiating, persisting, and re-initiating. Don’t get stuck on any one! Persist when you sense potential; innovate when you sense futility.
- Make the ‘what if’ your friend! What if breaks you out of your tunnel vision. It invites others to be resourceful with you. It tells the brain to rethink as new information floods in. Here’s more on The Magic of What If.
- Set a resourceful goal. What will you do each day or week or develop your resourcefulness. Write down a goal and work toward it. It saves it from the well-intention forgotten wasteland of resolutions.
- Celebrate resourcefulness, yours and others. Resourcefulness can become a habit and even a way of life. See the value and the fun. Celebrate it and you will renew it every day.
To be resourceful, tap your creativity, confidence, courage, persistence, flexibility and desire to succeed. Whether you find your resourcefulness in logic, a desire to help others, survival instinct, the push to win, or the fun of creativity, you will expand your life for the better. When you are resourceful you thrive in change and your agility keeps you vital and relevant.
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
©2016 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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~Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Grateful that you included my post as one of the resources. Love that you included asking What If too… great way to tap into creativity when at a block.
Sharing – great resource to create your own luck by getting into action!
Best,
Alli
Many thanks Alli! Your post was inspirational and as I was writing this one, I knew I wanted to link to yours.
As for getting into action, it has stood “my test of time” and hopefully that of others.
Grateful for your feedback here.
Kate
Hi Kate,
I’m so unfortunate to miss your resourceful posts 🙂 I hope we get a workaround for the alerts problem.
This point “Replace the desire to be perfect with the desire to learn.” relates to me very well. I’m perfectionist and I really need to get that out of my way to be resourceful out of my experiences good or bad 🙂
I liked your science example 🙂 very much related to the point.
Regards,
Khalid
Thank you Khalid. We all have some obstacles and when we can identify them, we are on the way to doing so much better.
Grateful for your comment!
Kate
Excellent article Kate! Sharing with my social media community! LOVE everything you do!
Many thanks Cynthia! I am so glad you found this post moving and valuable. And of course happy you will share my insight with your community.
Grateful thanks and best wishes,
Kate