Exploring Alternatives Quotes

Successful people engage that creative part of their minds and ask, "Well, I wonder how else I can look at this problem? I wonder how else I could deal with this decision? I wonder what other possibilities I have there?"

Always find different ways to accomplish the mission. Then run a counter-analysis and list the advantages and disadvantages. When you have done that, you are ready to make a decision.

If I do enough different things in enough different ways, I may, eventually, do something right.

Our job is not to predict the future. Rather, it's to suggest all the possible futures - so that society can make informed decisions about where we want to go.

There are no problems that can’t be solved. The world is too full of options. If you can’t solve the #problem, it’s because you haven’t found the right option ... But the answer is always there.

Everybody's saying hell's the hippest way to go. Well, I don't think so, but I'm gonna take a look around it though.

We fret about how to keep going the same old way when we should be casting around for another way that’s better.

When you spring to an idea, and decide it is truth, without evidence, you blind yourself to other possibilities.

I hope many of you will be people that question why things are and why we have to do them the way we have always done them. I hope you will take some risks, exert some real leadership on issues, and if you will, dance along the edge of the roof as you continue for life.

The desire to get from point A to point B in the shortest, most efficient amount of time without ever wandering off path, can mean you miss out on those happy accidents that push you further and faster in a direction you never even considered.

Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another.

You have to have the will not to jump at the first solution, because the really elegant solution might be right around the corner.

Skepticism requires disbelief and curiosity, not conformity to conventional wisdom. There's no science here. This is pure politics.

I think, for many people, they think there's one giant promotion, and that's all that there is. It must be the best. But as they expand their palate and their horizons, they realize that, oh, there's other wrestling out there. They might not necessarily like it more, but it's an option now.

Doing a scene is like opening a bottle. If it doesn't open one way, try another - perhaps even give it up for another bottle?

A 'why' is a dangerous thing... It challenges old, comfortable ways, forces people to think about that they do instead of just mindlessly doing it. (Haplo) ... I think the danger is not so much in asking the 'why' as in believing you have come up with the only answer. (Alfred)

...discussion is also a most excellent means to avoid -decision-

Make a point to continually search for a better way of doing things, even when things are going well, to ensure that a better alternative has not been overlooked and to keep your creative talents in practice.

We all learn by experience, and your lesson this time is that you should never lose sight of the alternative. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson.

We get into ruts when we run with the first idea that pops into our head, not the last one.

if you don't have doubts you're either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.

I don't like to stick to one formula. That gets boring. I get bored, so I want to try different ways of getting inside something.

Often a successful problem-solver is one who creates a new context in which to view the problem. This can often be done by directing one's attention away from the distracting details of the difficulty. From a detached perspective, we may examine the situation in a new or different light and, after exploring information and options, choose an appropriate course of action.

I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade.

When you put off a task, you buy yourself time to engage in divergent thinking rather than foreclosing on one particular idea.