Meta Program: Pain Vs Gain

Some people are more motivated by what they don’t want than by what they do. You’ll likely have a tendency to one extreme or another and this tendency can leave blind spots in your creative thinking. So follow these steps and see what comes up…

• Choose a target audience – we’ll go for authors again
• Divide your page into 6 columns – with Pain to the left and Gain to the right
• List all the things your audience “is afraid of”, “hates”, “doesn’t want” in the third column
• List all the things your audience “is excited about”, “loves”, “does want” in the fourth column – you should have something that looks like this…

• Now, consider the consequence of each item moving left for Pain and right for Gain until you’re finished – you should have something like this when you’re done…

by Benedict Campbell - Wellcome Images

Virtually all of the items on this list could be used as the basis for a book – with most powerful words and ideas at the extreme left and right. Have fun with it and see what occurs.

Meta Program: Matching Vs Mis-Matching

You know how some people will always think of a counter example to anything you say? Well they’re mis-matchers. Then there are those that agree with everything you say or find commonality when there’s none – they’re matchers. Now, as I said – most people will be a mixture of both under certain conditions – so don’t be tempted to start labelling other people or yourself. For the purposes of creativity all we’re trying to do is increase your flexibility and options to expand your creative potential. Let’s get started!

(Matching) Go With The Grain…

1. Find a “Universal Truth” (really an over-simplified generalisation or compelling question) that baffles many people – like: Why does time speed up as we get older? Why don’t men listen? Why are all politicians liars? Why are some people lucky?
2. Promise to give your readers the answer to this “mystery”
3. Make it amusing

Examples of successful books using this Matching approach:

• The Luck Factor (What Makes Some People Luckier than Others?) – Richard Wiseman
• Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps – Allan and Barbara Pease
• Making Time (Why Do We Experience Time at Different Speeds?) – Steve Taylor
• The Tipping Point (What Turns a Small Event/Idea Into A Global Phenomenon?) – Malcolm Gladwell

(Mis-Matching) Go Against The Grain…

1. Find “Conventional Wisdom” or “Outdated Dogma” in your area – for publishing it could be “Getting Published is Difficult”
2. Attack the conventional wisdom aggressively …
3. Write a compelling headline or mission statement or manifesto for change – an example “Getting Published Is Easy – When You Know What You’re Doing”

Examples of successful books using this Mis-Matching approach:

• The God Delusion (God Exists? Prove It!) – Richard Dawkins
• Blink! (Big decisions need lots of analysis? No they don’t and here’s the proof) – Malcolm Gladwell
• Emotional Intelligence (IQ is linked to success? No EQ is a better indicator!) – Daniel Goleman
• The Gorillas Want Bananas (Textbook marketing works? 80% of it doesn’t!) – Debbie Jenkins (and me!)