How to Generate an Epiphany
The myth of epiphanies is that they strike you when you’re not expecting it. You’re sitting in your bathtub and suddenly you shout “Eureka!” because you’ve realized that water displacement can measure volume.
Well, OK. I think that one actually did happen.
I don’t think that’s always the case.
Often, epiphanies come from a systematic effort to think about a problem differently. I propose that the key is actually that you open your mind to approach the problem from different angles. You have to deliberately steer your mind to make wander or make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts.
The reason epiphanies sometimes happen when you’re not trying to solve the problem is that we allow our minds out of the restrictions we were imposing on it. That doesn’t have to be by accident.
In 1990, Frank Lynn Meshberger, M.D., saw that Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” on the Sistine Chapel was actually a side profile of the human brain. The fact had been overlooked for centuries. I remeber hearing this back in the day, and it has always stuck with me. I find it pretty cool, not because of what Michelangelo did (it’s debated), but that Dr. Meshberger saw what so many others had not.
He had been in medical school at the time and happened to look at picture of the fresco shortly after dissecting and drawing a human brain – here’s the story.
That discovery, I would suggest, was a very happy coincidence (if you indeed believe Michelangelo was drawing a human brain). Regardless, this kind of a discovery offers a glimpse, into how we can synthesize and find solutions. Sometimes, problem-solving comes when we add in lots of influences, not when we buckle down and “work the problem.”
If you’re stuck or things aren’t coming together, it might be time to pick up a book, look through the funny pages or listen to a symphony. You might need to invite in some other opinions, or draw the problem as a picture, or write a short story about it.
Putting in some extra hours at the office is likely counter-productive.
good advice on the counter-productive office time spend…i often “work” on my “epiphanies” while washing dishes, watering the grass, listening to music or even driving to taco del mar…
Thanks for the comment Mike. I’m finding one of the hardest – and smartest – practices in my day is to physically step away from the urgent task at hand and ask, “Is this the right task? Is there a better way?”