Tag Archives: think outside the box

Your Solution Resides Outside the Box

Every once in awhile I find something that reminds me that there are solutions to problems all around — once we think outside the box.

PBS did an article on a nursing home in Netherlands that allows college students free apartments in exchange for 30 hours a month volunteering. The students do things like watch sports with the seniors, visit them if they are ill, and generally be good citizens.

How remarkable is that?

There are so many ways we could improve our lives by integrating needs this way! Seems like all colleges should be looking into offering this. The students will get as much or more out of it than the seniors, and the seniors lives will be immeasurably enhanced by young people in their midst. Heck, you could even do this in reverse and locate day care centers near senior citizen homes and have those still mentally and physically agile be playground monitors and nap time story readers! Imagine the spark of life the seniors would gain and the increase in adult to child ratio the children would have!

What problems do you have in your life? Are there opportunities for you to think outside the box to find a solution?

follow your heart and make a difference

Lead with your heart and success will follow

Jane Chen, of Embrace Innovations, has created a wrap for premature babies to keep their body temperature stable–a big risk for these babies. Her baby warmers are significantly less expensive than incubators and one model has an insert that can be warmed with hot water, eliminating the need for electricity. Jane is making both an impact on thousands of lives and a profitable company. Now that is thinking with her heart and outside the box!

Most people think of helping poor impoverished adolescent girls as charity. However, the Girl Effect Accelerator (GEA) thought differently. Sponsored by Nike, GEA has sponsored 13 entrepreneurs who had product ideas targeted exactly at this market of low income young women, especially in poorer areas.

Ayzh, another GEA company, has a low cost clean birth kit to decrease infections during and after child birth. According to BBC News, Zubaida Bai, the company’s founder, says that companies such as her own, with the support offered by GEA, are helping to challenge the mistaken belief that only charities can assist people living in poverty. I love this idea that we can create profitable companies that do good!

These women had ideas and got the boost they needed by getting information and mentoring from the GEA initiative. (GEA does not fund the selected companies–which may be what Nike needs to think about next, since access to capital is often the missing link in women with great ideas getting them to the level needed to make an impact.)

If you had the needed capital, mentoring support and a team with the right skills, what idea would you pursue to make the world a better place? Wait a minute, let go of that thought that you can’t because you have bills to pay, kids to raise, or some problem to fix, first.

Just imagine you have everything you need. Now ask yourself again, if you had the tools and support to make it happen what idea would you pursue that could improve the world?

Take 5 minutes every day to journal and imagine what this would feel like to pursue. Add in the details of what you would do, who you would be helping, and what it would look like. If you do this regularly with enough imagination you might find yourself one day living your dream!