I was facing a problem last night, I had to print a set of document for tomorrow's meeting. It was 10.10pm, there's a printer in the house but I had no paper. So my friend suggested me to go to Tesco to buy papers and come back to print because Tesco closed at 11pm. I checked and realised most stationary stores only open at 9am, my meeting was at 10am on the other side of the town, if I print at the stationary store in the area where I live at 9am, I may not be able to make it to the meeting. At that point of time, it would look like the best option for me was to go to Tesco to buy the papers and print at home.

But I felt a little lazy, so I decided I would take a risk to go earlier to see if the shop would be open before 9am. Of course, it’d be a bet which doesn’t seem logical to most people.

And then suddenly it popped up in my head that why not I go to my meeting place earlier so I could go to the stationery store near to the area to print the document and still make it to attend the meeting. That’s it, I found the perfect solution to fit my schedule. And I just did according to my plan and I arrived at the meeting even earlier than expected.

Most of the time when we face a problem, we tend to over focus on the resources we have or the resources that we don’t have at the very moment, and forget to look for a 3rd alternative - in my simple case study as mentioned, I almost forgot the resources that I have and can use for tomorrow to solve the problem that I think is urgent now. Of course, in many cases, you may need to evaluate the other consequences or risks that you may face for each of the option, the convenience and inconvenience for each option should you decide to opt for it. Nevertheless, being able to find the other dimension of the problem you think you face may help you solve the problem in the perfect or convenient way for you.