Sometimes the “solution” is to stop doing the harmful things
Using TRIZ to identify the things we want to STOP
When we are going through things that would lead to a bad outcome, how can we use a different view to consider what we are currently doing? In the class, I tried an awesome activity which is called TRIZ. Let’s see what I experienced in the process.
First, together we thought of the worst outcome that could happen during the our first year at school. Some were related to the process of learning like language barrier and misunderstanding of the knowledge. Some were about health like having cancer, being murdered and even died. When we were listing those things, I still felt peace. It seems like I was just coming up with some terrible situations, but those worst things were far away from me.
While in the next step, some negative emotions started to appear in my mind.
We listed answers to the question, “What would you do if your goal was to produce that worst possible outcome?” Then we were required to go down those list item and think about whether anything we are currently doing is like any of those activities in the first list. What are we already doing that is likely to lead to a bad outcome?
Life not always looks like what we expect for. During this step, we clearly recognized what problems we were struggling with, such as mental health problems, relationship with classmates and professors, and financial pressure. Even though those things brought some negative feelings like anxiety or confusion, we gain a sense of comfort, since those were problems that could be solved. They were not such terrible.
Then, we moved to the last step: look for items on the second list that we would like to stop doing, and think of a first step we could make to stop them. In this process, we listed some methods like going hiking, talking with classmates and finding the internship for extra money. It gave me some hopeful feelings. I realized that we haven’t encountered any difficulties that made us feel helpless. We have the ability to stop doing such worst things and decrease the negative feelings in our mind. I started to be grateful for the environment I’m living in and people who always give me help.
In a nutshell, I felt that I’ve got a more positive attitude with my life after doing the TRIZ activity. Things could not only be considered in one way. We need to evaluate them in many different angles. If you are interested in TRIZ training, try it.
To learn more, see the guide for the TRIZ activity on liberatingstructures.com.
