Consider Potential Negative Outcomes to Improve Problem-Solving

Are you the kind of person who says, "What's the worst that could happen?"

Working backward from an undesirable outcome can create the opportunity to uncover a novel approach to avoid it.

The concept of premeditation of evils originated with ancient Stoic philosophers. This practice involved envisioning negative scenarios that could occur in one's life, such as losing a job or suffering an injury.

Inversion thinking, while not directly attributed to the Stoics, shares a similar philosophical approach.

For anyone who may become enamored with a new idea, the inversion thinking technique can help ensure that they don’t miss possible pitfalls or barriers to realizing the vision.

Choosing to view the world through rose-colored glasses is impractical. Likewise, ruminating about what could go wrong is unhealthy.

And, leveraging inversion thinking does not make you a pessimist.

Instead, inversion thinking aims to better prepare you for success by actively avoiding areas of risk.