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As we face the current problems of the global economy, most of us are struggling with financial hardships. For some this means driving less or canceling a trip they were looking forward to. Others are facing serious lifestyle changes such as putting off educational plans, struggling to feed their families, or even losing their homes. Not knowing what the future holds, we feel stressed out and fearful, drained of our vitality. We may find ourselves at a loss for ideas and solutions, our creativity gone when we need it the most, especially to stay afloat at work.

It is easy to feel bogged down by events beyond our control. However, we can’t wait around for the world to change. Regaining our vitality, including at work, is often our first step toward solutions. For it is with vitality that the brain begins creating new connections, replacing despair with opportunity, and maybe for you, new work opportunity.

Reclaiming vitality frequently starts with looking at the ways we are handling our goals, for many these are new work goals. In my book Move Into Life, there’s a chapter titled “Flexible Goals: Make the Impossible Possible,” where I point out that how we pursue goals—rigidly or flexibly—will either boost or diminish our vitality. Surely it’s important to have goals, whether it’s to maintain a certain lifestyle, build a business, at work, or feed our families. However, for your brain to be able to create new possibilities and solutions—allowing the miraculous to occur in your life—it needs new information.

When we have rigidly held goals, we stop the flow of new information and miss opportunities that are right there in front of us. Holding our goals loosely, and having a flexible attitude, is not only our surest path to freeing our most innovative problem-solving abilities but is essential for maintaining the vitality that makes this possible again and again.

To hold goals loosely, articulate them clearly; develop a plan for achieving them, but leave room for play and experimentation. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Even allow your work goals to be transformed and redefined. Foster a sense of curiosity and wonder. Out of play, curiosity, and wonder come new discoveries and possibilities. Remember, you are running the show and need not be driven by fear.

When faced with challenges, one of the things that keeps us stuck, and drains our vitality, is repetition. It is normal to first react to stress and fear by holding on to the old, doing again and again what used to work for us in the past. With today’s economic challenges, one thing is sure: we need to respond in new and effective ways to situations that we can’t even predict. That is where another Essential for Vitality comes into play – Variation.

Brain research has shown that variation—including the variations in how we perform life’s everyday tasks—measurably increases the synapses in our brains. This means more connections between brain cells, providing new ways to revise and invent, boosting vitality and creative problem-solving. Through variation we are soon transcending our own limitations, finding new solutions and forming new goals that will give us real results to vastly ease the economic work pressures we’re feeling

Introduce small variations into your daily life at first. You may think of variations as intentional small mistakes. Those ‘mistakes’ will flood your brain with new information. Take the ‘wrong’ route home, brush your teeth with the ‘wrong hand’, make your coffee in a different way than usual.; vary how you greet your family members or housemates, what do you do first at work, or how you end each day. And remember, vary how and what you think about your work challenges and others in your life.

It takes courage to allow variations but it’s absolutely necessary if we’re to be vital and effective. Remember that each variation expands your brain’s potential for inventing the new and for beginning to soar in the face of your challenges.

This is just a sampling of the many ways available for boosting your vitality and increasing the creativity required to meet difficult challenges in your life. In my book, Move Into Life, you’ll learn about the Nine Essentials For Lifelong Vitality and find many more suggestions, stories and exercises to expand your brain’s capacities, along with scientific research that tells why the Nine Essentials are so effective. ~