Karen Russell GS1140 10-12-15
Title: Recognizing and Addressing Mental Blocks

An example of stereotyping is rope. A rope is used to tie things but it can also be used to make a trap for animals, to hoist food up so that other animals can’t get it. An example of limiting the problem unnecessarily is not being able to camouflage yourself. You can use the mud, dirt and leaves to camouflage your body to hide from animals. An example of saturation of information overload is knowing what you need to do when you’re out in the woods with nothing but your clothes. While in the woods you will have to sort out what needs done first and how to do it with no tools. An emotional block is having fear of dying. When first you are alone you have to overcome the thought of you don’t know how to build shelter. A fear of risk taking is being scared to try and build a type of snare. Being able to make a snare and not catch anything, then making adjustments to improve it for the next time. An example for lack of appetite for chaos is trying to keep everyone focused on working together as a group. Being able to direct each person in the group while others are trying to tell others what to do. An example of judging rather than generating ideas would be making assumptions about what people can do just by the way they look. For instance a small framed person not being able to move a large heavy log instead of finding out what they are capable of. An example of lack of challenge is lighting a fire. A person who has been a survival course and knows how to easily start one. Defining the problem too narrowly is what to use for a fire. Attacking the symptoms rather than the real problem is what to use for a make shift shelter. Assuming there is only one right answer on how to make a spear to hunt with. Getting hooked on the first solution that works is using branches for a roof the lean to. Being hooked on a solution that almost works is using just leaves to make a bed. Being distracted by irrelevant information would be all the different ways to hunt. Getting frustrated by lack of success would be not trying different ways of hunting technics. Being too anxious to finish would be making a pit trap and not having sufficient spikes to kill the animal in the pit. Defining the problem ambiguously is to vacuum the floor and only doing one room instead of the whole house. A negative attitude would be I can’t turn the paper in because it’s already a zero. Fear of failure would be not going to college because you’re not as smart as the others. Following the rules is like turning in homework late to get partial credit instead of not turning it in. Over-reliance on logic is building a tree house instead of going with the flow of how the tree grows. Belief that you aren’t creative is taking the old scrap metal and making a statue of an animal.