Let’s move on to a new topic. Since it is a hot summer, I will talk about my recent experience.
How to find new opportunities
Sometimes, we want more opportunities to change our lives. There could be many problems in our lives. We have to solve them or find another way to avoid them. In such a situation, opportunities solve them.
There are many kinds of opportunities. I like classifying them into two types, as follows:
- Opportunities that give us all-round solutions, such as money, status, honor, human networks, fame, social power, or social resources. It is easy to notice but hard to get. This is for people with sociality.
- Opportunities that give us affordable solutions, such as finding substitutes, creating a new lifestyle, or realizing new uses we are unaware of. It is hard to notice, but it is easy to get. This is for people with creativity.
Solutions in a blind spot
If we are empathic and creative and want to live our lives in our own way, using the former social resources as little as possible and focusing on the latter as much as possible would be effective. We are often not good at obtaining social resources, especially if we want to live a secluded life in the countryside.
In such a case, we first try to solve our problems with our creativity and affordable resources. Then, we will find some materials we cannot create. We use social resources to buy them. In other words, all-round social resources, such as money, are a last resort.
Such a lifestyle naturally makes us live with low spending and high assets. Many diverse assets, including our creativity, wisdom, and experiences, are our assets. In other words, finding an opportunity in a blind spot is a form of creativity.
That is why we want such a style.
However, we often cannot discover those hidden opportunities because they are in places that are hard to notice. We cannot easily be aware of a blind spot.
Today, I will introduce my recent experience. This might give us a tip to find hidden opportunities.
My experience with an electric fan
Hidden opportunities are on the other side of our everyday focus. In my case, I have been focusing on reducing the cost of living these days. The opportunity was in the opposite area: increasing costs.
By the way, it is the hottest summer ever in my area. I am trying to figure out how to create coolness.
Although it is easy to solve with an air conditioner, I wanted another affordable solution due to its cost. I now live in a large house alone and change rooms every few hours. Using an air conditioner in every room takes cost and doesn’t fit my lifestyle.
Although I thought about various ways to cool down, such as taking a water shower or thinking about airflow, I could not find a good way. That made me think about whether I should start using the air conditioner.
Noticing the blind spot
At such a time, I noticed my blind spot.
I usually use an electric fan. I like it. It was a hot afternoon, and I had no energy to move my whole body, so I switched the electric fan on with my toes.
However, it is a toe, so I pressed the wrong button. Then, I noticed that it became cooler than before. I accidentally turned on the ‘strong’ button instead of the ‘medium’ button I always press.
At that moment, I realized that I could use the strong button! Until then, it had been the norm to use the fan in medium mode. The strong mode looked like it would cost more. That made me unconsciously refrain from using it and forget its existence. Then, that became my blind spot.
Even though it costs much less electricity than an air conditioner, I was seriously considering whether to use an air conditioner while ignoring it.
Looking at the opposite side of our usual way
Perhaps a creative solution is as simple as that. Once we notice it, it is surprisingly easy to solve the problem. However, it is hard to find it because it is in a blind spot.
Imagine that there are such solutions around us. That is a creative solution.
Try letting go of common sense. We cannot find them using common sense. That gives us opportunities that we can easily realize.
After that experience, I started using the fan in strong mode. It was heavenly and comfortable. It looks like I will be comfortable this summer.
Conclusion
That is my recent experience of noticing my blind spot.
Although it is hard to notice, once we find it, it is surprisingly easy to solve the problem.
This might allow us to realize our ideal lifestyles.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
