Try this experiment and discover possibilities
On a napkin or a sheet of paper right now, draw just a rough picture of a coffee cup and saucer—and be creative. On a napkin or a sheet of paper right now, draw just a rough picture of a coffee cup and saucer—and be creative. Read on when you’re finished.
I’ve run this experiment with thousands of people, and seen big cups and little cups, really unique patterns and fanciful handles, even some sassy slogans.
But without even seeing your drawing, I can make a prediction: Your sketch, just like almost all the others I’ve seen, is taken from a side view, rather than from a birds-eye view above.
But why? We’ve all looked down at our coffee mugs before.
The experiment is a great lesson in positive psychology: Before you even begin to solve a problem—like drawing that cup—your brain has already created the parameters of your reality.
In Before Happiness, I describe a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that med students at Yale who were exposed to an art class saw 10 percent more medical details, which ended up saving lives. If you want to expand your successes, practice expanding your mind.
Spend a few minutes each day for a week looking at art on Google Images or take your family to the museum. Try to think of five ways to describe the same event, like a meeting. By seeing the world in novel ways, we significantly increase our ability to see important details on our path to success. {end}
