Solving or Creating?

The greatest statesmen in history have not been problem solvers. They have been builders and creators.

Robert Fritz – Author

There is a profound difference between problem solving and creating Problem solving is taking action to have something to go away – the problem. Creating is taking action to have some thing come into being  - the creation. Most of us have been raised n the tradition of problem solving and have little insight or experience in to the creative process.

Problem solvers propose elaborate schemes to identify and define the problem, and equally detailed analyses of the best solutions and options. If successful you may eliminate the problem; you have the absence of something. But you still do not have the presence of a result you want to create.

We do have many problems that constantly need solving. But from politics to education, from business to church ministry, problem solving will never create the outcomes, the preferable futures, the compelling alternatives that we seek. That is simply because elimination of anything no matter how bad never creates anything.

Is God fundamentally a problem solver or creator? What do we typically ask of God? What is you fundamental orientation? How much time do you spend on each? What are the concrete ways to move toward creating? Can you see creating something simultaneously that can solve some of the problems you had? What is your creative process?

Concretely?  Think about a personal best on creating something.  Go back and try and think about your state of mind, the environment you were in, the intuitional sense you had.  Now how did you prototype that new thing about to be born?  What experiments did you try?  How long did it take?  These questions will start to get you in touch with your process and what it takes to creatively birth instead of laboriously solve.