ROADBLOCKS TO CHANGE part 1 A

CHANGE - problem solving (part 1 A)

Many times when I’ve attempted to change things about myself, I have run into brick walls which seem to make change impossible. I have found that the biggest reason it seems impossible is not because the problem is, but because of the way that I’m trying to do it. I seem to go in circles. I want to change my thinking with my thinking. AA has described an alcoholic’s problems as a “self-imposed crisis”. How then can it be solved by a self-imposed solution?
Remember that these problems are not just suffered by alcoholics and addicts (the theme of this blog states EVERYONE). I believe that everyone, in some ways, gets stuck in their own thinking to some degree. Anyone striving for self-improvement will also have to find ways to think outside the box of their own thinking. What is needed is a second-order change - a way to look at the problem from the outside of the box. From using only your own thinking to change (being stuck inside the box - first-order change), second order change seems unpredictable, abrupt, illogical. That is the nature of it, the change has to go beyond what you think and believe. After all, true change involves transforming what you think and believe to some extent!
The follow is a good example of the problems that people face when stuck in their own thinking. Look at the 9 dots in the picture. Copy this onto a piece of paper. Here’s the problem to solve - without lifting the pencil off the paper, find a way to connect all of the dots using only 4 straight lines. There is a solution and it is not a “trick”, try to figure it out.
I put the solution on the following link. Don’t get frustrated and jump to it right away. You can solve this!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/steventmeer/9DotSolution