Through the eyes of a child: It's fun down here ...

We've all heard the story about the truck driver who got his vehicle stuck under the bridge. He gets out wondering how he is ever going to tell his boss it can't come out when a child who had been observing the muttering said - why don't you let the air out of the tyres...

Sometimes we can be too "adult" in our thinking, especially when it comes to creative endeavours.

Have you ever seen a child at play? Recently that is?

It's fascinating - they can create games out of nothing, and conjour up new toys made with elements of others. They test, they break things down and start again, they take things apart to see how things work and so what they don't always go back together again - they don't really care when they are exploring the world with their creative genius. They don't care if their paintings are created using "proper" colours or that their animals have 3 legs or 10, to them the world can be anything they want.

What do we do as adults?

Tell them to colour between the lines, we tell them houses can't be green with pink spots and trees are always green ...

When did we get so up ourselves that we think we're right all the time. In their imaginary world the trees might be brown and the trunks red for all we know - they need to be that colour to hide the lesser spotted brown furry thing hiding from its enemies in the purple grass below.

Do you have a particular issue or problem facing you at the moment? Of course you do, we wouldn't be sensible adults if we didn't have a problem or an issue to chew over now would we?

Well here's a radical thought - how would a child handle it?

Well for starters you probably wouldn't be sitting at a desk in front of a computer, you'd probably be sitting on the floor with a piece of paper and a crayon or two. Assuming you're not out "playing" on the swings that is (well it is school holidays here, they're allowed)... When was the last time you sat on the floor with a piece of paper and a box of crayons and doodled?

Come to think of it, when did you last sit on a swing and let the world fly past as you created your new world?

What would be the most outrageous solution to your "problem"?

A few weeks ago I asked you to think about a question

"How can I ..."

Think about this as a child would - how can I double my income -

can i do two paper rounds instead of one? can I get more lawnmowing clients? can I get my friends to help me? can I get them to do the physical work while I go and get more people? don't buy so many sweets (candy), get mum to buy me my sweets, get dad to buy me some too - hey I like sweets, ask mum and dad for a raise in pocket money ...

How can I lose 20lbs ...

Ok I'll stop eating the sweets; maybe I should ride my bike more; I wonder if Grace wants to come out and play (she has sweets - oh that's right I'm not eating sweets)

How much more would you get accomplished during your next meeting if you kicked off your shoes, pushed the chairs and tables out of the way, sat on the floor and got out the toys? Think that's a rather strange way of looking at the world. Well consider children's clothes and shoe shops. Most of the time, these places aren't designing for their main clientele, but their rather larger parents. If you get down to their height - that could be either kneeling or sitting flat on one's rear ends BTW ... how much can you see? How bored are you going to be? You want new shoes, WHERE ARE THEY?

How about a children's library section?

But this isn't just about designing for children, rather to get you to think differently about the world you inhabit.

• Why do you eat cereal for breakfast and meat and veggies for "dinner"? who says you should do it that way?
• Why do you drive that way to work?
• Why do you watch those television programs, listen to that radio station, read those kinds of books?
• Why do you spend 30 minutes walking on a treadmill when the outside world is just waiting to be explored? (As a regular walker and gym goer I do find this one fascinating - the only time I use the treadmill is if it is a) raining outside and I've forgotten my rain coat b) too hot to walk outside c) I want to test what I am doing and need easy access to speeds / calories / times. Any other time you will find me outside, enjoying the fresh air and allowing my mind to freely associate with what it finds)

We can be forgiven for thinking life is a serious matter, after all none of us come out of it alive - but wouldn't it be fun if we can stop thinking about it for a while ...

Turn things on its head - go on, it's fun - especially upside down :-D