191about it. I wondered if my son or daughters would be
uncomfortable with a father so old. And then I realized
that this didn’t have to be a weakness. I thought about
who I was when I was 25, and what a difficult time I
would have had being a good father back then. Soon I
took this “weakness” to be a great strength.
Then one day while watching The Little Mermaid
with my kids, I saw myself as the father in that movie—
vigorous, strong, and wise, with flowing white hair. It
was the perfect image. I now see my age as a major
strength in raising my kids. The only “weakness” was
in the way I was looking at it.
There isn’t anything on your weakness list that can’t
be a strength for you if you think about it long enough.
The problem is, our weaknesses embarrass us. But
embarrassment is not real thinking. Once we really start
thinking about our weaknesses they can become
strengths, and creative possibilities emerge.
92. Try becoming the problem
Whatever type of problem you are facing, the most
self-motivational exercise I know of is to immediately
say to yourself, “I am the problem.”
Because once you see yourself as the problem, you
can see yourself as the solution.
This insight was dramatically described by James
Belasco in Flight of the Buffalo.
“This is the insight I realized early and return to
often,” he wrote, “In most situations, I am the problem.
My mentalities, my pictures, my expectations, form the
biggest obstacle to my success.”
By seeing ourselves as victims of our problems, we
lose the power to solve them. We shut down creativity
Try becoming the problem