Grab a piece of paper and write down your top 10 issues that still are unresolved, undecided, unmoving. (Go ahead. Hit the 'pause' button and do it now - I'll wait for you.)



I had a meeting with a successful professional this month who was stalled. She has a fabulous new business idea that could revolutionize the driving habits of young drivers and the costs of insurance for their parents. And she wasn't making progress.

As we spoke about her thinking and the actions she'd taken, it was clear that she'd become stuck in her approach. Stuck with a particular point of view about how best to proceed. Stuck with her 'knowing' based on many years experience in the industry.

And yet, that 'knowing' is a two-edged sword. She's not alone. I often find for myself and my clients that the root of our becoming 'stalled' lies in our fixation on how we're approaching the situation. We're certain that we know the question and all the factors we're supposed to take into consideration. Often we've written off the alternative ideas without actually considering them.

We give the available options no attention at all.

And then no progress is made. No decision is made. No plan of action is designed or implemented.

On the one hand my client knows exactly to who contact throughout the industry to explore the idea. On the other hand, she had passed over the rather long list of alternative entry points for her idea and ended up immobilized when her contacts didn't move forward with her proposal.

Our life experience and our training and expertise often box us in and prevent us from seeing the many other ideas and solutions that are available. So here is one of the simplest and most powerful techniques you can use to expand your attention and expand your options in a similar situation. The technique is called the

REFRAME ' Change Your Frame of Reference

Add a new person with a different background to the conversation.

A new mind, with other experiences and expertise, often helps create the shift that will enable you to reach a decision.

The less similar the new mind you bring to the conversation, the quicker you'll see the assumptions you've been making that have been preventing you from seeing the alternatives you could pursue.

When my clients use me, they know they'll get new perspectives as you'll see later. When a fresh additional person is not available, I find that the following technique works for most of my clients to get them shifting their references.

For my client, this version of the Reframe Technique came up with more than six distinct new approaches she could pursue. Every single one of them was as viable as the idea she'd been stuck on. One was to change from using the insurance industry as the entry point for her proposal to the parents themselves.

Parents could be approached individually and in their local organizations. Since the idea is of economic benefit to them as well as to the insurance companies at large, there might be quicker receptivity to the idea and quicker action on testing her idea.

There were more High Payoff ideas that came from our meeting, but I'll save those for you to discover in the mailer you get from your insurance company in years to come.

So grab the Reframe Technique and apply it to something on that list you wrote out, and let's get it moving again so you can boost your productivity this week.