Imagine you’re on an adventure and you’re walking through a deep, lush forest.  You’ve got a backpack with basic necessities – a first aid kit, rope, a hatchet, a lighter, and a tarp.  It’s early summer.  You’ve been walking through the woods, and you come to a wide, slow-moving river.  You need to get across this river to continue your journey.  So, you examine the tools at your disposal and determine that you can build a raft and a paddle.  You cut down a few trees, fasten them together with rope, and you make your way across the river to the opposite shore.

Now that you’re on the other side, thanks to the raft and your ingenuity, you face another thick forest.  So, you start dragging the raft.  It’s getting caught on trees and shrubs… it’s probably hitting you in the ankles every once in a while… dragging this raft is really slowing your progress.  Should you continue dragging the raft or come up with a different solution?  Perhaps what makes the most sense in this scenario is taking the raft apart, retrieving your rope, and continuing your adventure without the raft.

How often do the tools we use to solve problems or overcome challenges end up inhibiting our progress?  If you haven’t done it yet, there’s probably a time coming where you’ll be doing something, and you’ll think (or be asked) “why is it done this way?”.  And your answer will be “Well… we’ve always just done it this way.”  “This is the tool I’ve always used for this particular problem.”

How many rafts are we dragging through the woods?  It may have been a great solution at the time, but since it’s no longer serving our best interest, let’s drop the raft and create our next tool/solution.  And just because we’ve abandoned the raft doesn’t mean we lost the ability to build another one.  We may face another river in the future when that skill set will come in handy.

What are the rafts you’re carrying?  Where do you see opportunities to try something different? 

CHALLENGE #1: Find one habit and make a change to inspire yourself to think a little differently.  Take a different way to work, use a different door to come in, eat your lunch in a new spot.  What do you notice about the change?