At times, creativity can feel out of reach, leaving us with the sense that we have nothing meaningful to offer. Learning to navigate this emotional rollercoaster throughout your professional life is a valuable exercise, especially if you aspire to leadership positions.
Imagine you know someone, let’s call him Joe, whom you consider very creative. Despite this, he wasn’t feeling that way during a certain period of his career.
He had really wanted to work in a specific industry and had finally landed a job there, but it wasn’t all he’d anticipated.The context involved repetitive, routine tasks, and the company was experiencing a market downturn. No matter how many innovative suggestions were offered, the CEO wasn’t willing to accept any changes he suggested. Joe ended up feeling frustrated at work and felt his creativity had vanished.
Creativity, not being an end in itself, is a vital characteristic for any professional, even if they perform seemingly uncreative tasks. This vital force that runs in our veins wants to express itself in some way, whether through writing, words, or actions.
If you’re feeling frustrated in some way, it’s a big sign that your creative potential isn’t being fully explored. Fortunately, a specific mental framework offers a path to leverage it.
A paradigm shift
Our attention naturally zeroes in on whatever is bothering us. It’s in our minds’ nature to identify discomforts, annoyances, and potential dangers. For this reason, it becomes difficult to understand exactly what one desires so they can move towards it instead of towards the discomfort.
In Joe’s case, despite being considered an ultra-creative person, all he could focus on was the fact that none of his improvement ideas had value or could move forward. In his mind, this meant his creativity had disappeared.
Watching a video sent by a friend, he had a major breakthrough. The video talked about the inversion mental model. Simply put, it explained how our minds easily gravitate towards what we don’t want, and how it’s much easier to start there.
Inversion Mental Model
The very simple exercise proposed made Joe realize he was focusing all his energy and attention on work and forgetting that his creativity applies to all areas of his life. Even though work was an important part of his life, he didn’t control all the contexts and could very well take the opportunity to focus his attention on his personal development, using his creativity in other areas of his life at that moment.
Doing this helped him change his perspective and develop creative aspirations for how to conduct his career, leading to a complete overhaul of his career plan.
So, Joe applied the inversion mental framework to reach this conclusion. Now, what were his exact steps?
“Invert, always invert. Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward.”- Charlie Munger
How to use the mental model of inversion
The simple way to use reverse thinking is to ask yourself the following question: “What is the worst thing that could happen in my life right now?” and “What would I have to do to make that happen?” After that, you just do the complete opposite.
Inverting is simply thinking about the opposite of something. Just like Joe did, you only need a sheet of paper and a pencil to get started.
1. List what you don’t want
The first step was to make a list of everything that was bothering him and that he didn’t want. The “DON’T WANT” part is important because here he gave himself permission to list exactly what was causing him discomfort.
Try this first exercise yourself: list what you don’t want and the negative consequences. You can even list what bothers you concerning people, places, and situations.
Here’s an example from Joe’s list:
I DON’T WANT to:
- be stuck in the same job function at work
- get fired
- keep earning ‘x’
- keep complaining
- lack support from my girlfriend
- have this job be my entire life
- be broke
- …
After about 15 minutes of extensive listing, Joe started to feel the weight he was carrying lessen. Apparently, the simple act of being able to put on paper what he didn’t want to happen made him feel a little more creative.
2. List what actions one must take to achieve that undesired outcome
Now calmer, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a pencil in the other, Joe began to think about everything a person would have to do to achieve the undesired outcome, and the list turned out like this.
- Be stuck in the same job function – Volunteering for extra projects, getting overwhelmed, and ending up with more demands without a pay raise or increased recognition. Failing to develop leadership skills and remaining a jack-of-all-trades.
- Get fired – Not helping the company increase revenue or reduce expenses, and failing to communicate how my work contributes to these goals.
- Keep earning ‘x’ – Fail to recognize industry standards for higher pay and the company’s culture, asking for a raise at the wrong company, neglecting to market myself as a professional elsewhere, and missing opportunities to create new business ventures.
- Keep complaining – Focus only on negatives, ignoring positive aspects, Exaggerate problems instead of looking for solutions.
- Lack support from my girlfriend – Dismiss advice or constructive feedback, Avoid gratitude or appreciation, Vent frustrations constantly without taking action
- Have this job be my entire life – Always be available, sacrificing free time and rest, Measure self-worth solely by professional achievements, Avoid setting boundaries between work and personal life, Prioritize work over personal relationships and hobbies.
- Be broke – Avoid budgeting or financial planning, Neglect saving for emergencies or future needs, Depend solely on low-paying jobs
- …
3. The outline of a new plan
Now that Joe had a clearer understanding of what he wanted to avoid and the behaviors that would keep leading to those undesired outcomes, it became much easier to adjust his path and create an immediate action plan to pursue his true goals.The same can happen to you if you try this step-by-step approach.
Now, to have at least a minimum viable action plan, he only needed to consider the opposite of all that—meaning:
- Being more strategic with his workload,
- Focusing on solutions to generate additional income or find a new job/business venture,
- Staying open to his girlfriend’s feedback, and
- Taking more control of his finances by first understanding where his money was going and how he could save more to build a reserve.
He didn’t need to drain all the joy from that job just because he’d wanted it for so long. He could explore more without fear of finding evidence that this job at this company might not be his long-term plan.
This made it easier for him to gather more information, both internally within the company and externally, allowing him to position himself more strategically.
Joe realized that no one at the company had been promoted in over 5 years, managers only earned 2% more, and the owner viewed the company as his cash cow. When the company made a lot of money, the owner would take all the profit, buy new cars for himself and his wife, and when the company made little, he’d pressure the team to work more under the same conditions.
The decision to change careers came gradually. Inverted thinking helped him invest his time and energy into what truly required attention. He identified the type of business he would start slowly, and within a few months, he was already doing side work for a couple of clients.
He began having more serious conversations with his girlfriend about their shared future and what they needed from each other, and he even picked up a new hobby: acrylic painting.
Many successful people, much like Joe, continue to leverage inverted thinking to determine their next steps. You can begin doing so today.
Conclusion
The mental model of inverted thinking can help you identify what you truly desire, at least in this moment, and put it to the test. Each story will be different, as Joe´s opposite might be different from yours.
And here’s another idea for you: In addition to inverted thinking, you can also experiment with divergent and convergent thinking to unlock even more of your creative potential.
If you’ve read this far and haven’t tried any of the exercises, I challenge you to start now. And if you finished this article wanting to learn more, I invite you to join the waiting list to discover other mental models that successful people have used and still use to make better decisions. Just click the banner below.
