My youngest son loves to do mazes. He devours any labyrinth he can find. Whether it is on a place mat or in a children's magazine, you can usually find his path marked in crooked crayon.
One day, I decided to watch him work his way through. I noticed that on this occasion, he was having a hard time figuring it out. He tried a few times, and then he did something I didn't expect. He started from the end and worked his way backwards. I asked him why he did that and he explained to me that it is easier that way.
One of Stephen Covey's principles is to "begin with the end in mind." While this might not be what he meant, it is a different approach that I hadn't really thought of before. It turns out that it is scientifically proven that mazes are much easier when you start at the end and work your way to the beginning. Why wouldn't that be the case for some of our problems? If we can imagine the end state and work backwards from there, shouldn't our task be a bit more straightforward?
No comments:
Post a Comment