70. start as close to the end as possible

…aim for what’s possible right now…

This experiment could easily have been the first because predicting future change should always start close to the present moment. The closer it is, the sooner you can assess its success. The idea of aiming for what you can change right now means noticing more, monitoring more and keeping action simple. Starting with an observable end (e.g. what you would see yourself doing when things are better and/or different) is a strategy you can employ before actually doing something. Aiming to end close to a start shows how Solution Focused Brief Practice (SF) relies on personal and session goals to chronically motivate us through moments. It is not IQ that will get you to an end point, but rather a willingness to set feasible goals and believe in the fortitude of your experiments. So, start by devising an experimental schema by which you either ‘observe’ or ‘take action’ with things that happen in a time frame closer to your current predicament (near-present / near-future) and aim to achieve goals in a maximum of 24-hours or even the ‘next hour’.

About These Solution Focused (SF) Exception Experiments

You have in your hands 70 SF concepts inviting you to devise your exception experiments. In the first instance, you are introduced to an SF idea, asked to notice it in your own life then when convinced enough do something to enable change.

There are many ways you can use these experimental postcards. Perhaps contemplate them one by one or as part of your 10 Week SF Boot Camp. They are designed to be supplemented, adapted and follow a general trajectory from ‘noticing exceptions’ to ‘doing exceptions’ through a process of building confidence, motivation and integrated feedback behaviours.

SF Exception: an instance or case not conforming to the general rule (a time when problems could of or should have occurred but didn’t) meaning you can ask yourself: ‘How come?’, ‘What’s different?’ SF Experiment: a procedure carried out (under controlled or witnessable conditions) in order to discover an unrealised effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to confirm a known law.

My trip to Berlin taught me to rethink what a typical day is and that I no longer need to behave in expected ways. My gradual adoption of experimental change has left me motivated, more confident and expectant to a point that I now purposefully take the phrase ‘exception to the rule’ and apply it as often as I can. Who’d have imagined that grumpy old me would start taking advice and become curious about observing and privileging difference to such an extent that I changed day-by-day by employing small experiments. Each one no more than a test demanding at best courage and at worst a good dose of stupidity. I have learnt that exceptions are always both absent and present in my life and the bedrock determining whether I do something different. If your work life is unsatisfactory like mine, then doing more of the same probably isn’t working so employing exceptions to mix things up might make things better. Besides, what have you got to lose, because acting on exceptions to the rule not only makes difference a certainty, after a few attempts they begin to stick.