Having Problems? Try The Possibility Thinking Game

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Life is a set of problems and challenges that we have to overcome. Sometimes, however, we’ll come across some extremely difficult or “impossible” problems. How do we discover a solution if we can’t find any? We can try what Robert H. Schuller calls “playing the possibility thinking game”.

The Possibility Thinking Game

If there’s one book in my collection that stood out because of its title and content, it has to be Robert H. Schuller’s Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do! It’s in my most recommended list for a very good reason. When we face hopelessness and despair, the stories and lessons in that book can give us the strength and courage to come out on top.

For now, let’s get back to what we should do when we face “impossible” odds and problems. Schuller was in a similar situation at a very important point in his career, and thanks to that problem he found a very simple technique that we all can use when WE face our own “impossible” situations.

Here’s how Schuller discovered and used the possibility thinking game to come out on top.

Starting his church…

In 1955, Schuller accepted an invitation to start his own church in Garden Grove, California. He would be given four acres of land from his sponsoring denomination for $4,000 plus $500 to start with, but he needs to raise money himself for the actual church building. That amount he got was nowhere near enough, so he thought he’d hold services at a temporary location in his assigned area.

There’s just one BIG problem. His adviser said it’s impossible to find any empty halls in Garden Grove at the time so he couldn’t go through with that plan. Still, Schuller couldn’t back out. He HAD to start his church even though he has no place to hold services and no money to build a chapel. He couldn’t find a solution to his problem.

Days passed and, just two days before arriving at California, Schuller and his family still couldn’t solve it. He thought there HAD to be an empty hall that he could use SOMEWHERE in Garden Grove, so he needed to think. He took a piece of paper and wrote the numbers 1 to 10. He then let his imagination run wild, and these ideas are what he wrote:

1. Rent a school building.
2. Rent a Masonic Hall.
3. Rent a Elk’s Lodge.
4. Rent a mortuary chapel.
5. Rent an empty warehouse.
6. Rent a community club building.
7. Rent a Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
8. Rent a Jewish synagogue.
9. Rent a drive-in theater.
10. Rent an empty piece of ground, a tent, and folding chairs.

Suddenly, that “impossible” problem of starting his own church didn’t seem so impossible after all. The word “impossible”, he said, suddenly “sounded irresponsible, extreme, reactionary, and unintelligent”.

He tested his ideas one by one. Unfortunately, one by one, the solutions did NOT work. There were no Masonic Halls or Elk’s lodges there. The Baptists were using the only mortuary chapel in that town. The Presbyterians were renting the Seventh-Day Adventists’ church on Sundays, and there were no Jewish synagogues, empty warehouses, or community club buildings that they could use for their church either.

At idea number nine, he DID find a drive-in theater he could rent, but it was at the edge of town. While it was far from where he wanted to start his church, he thought that it was still a great location since it was in the center of Orange County. Four weeks later, he was finally able to start preaching, and he continued until he erected his first building a few years later.

There’s more to this story, like how he later needed one MILLION dollars to build the Tower of Hope, and how even later he needed over SEVENTEEN MILLION DOLLARS to build the Crystal Cathedral.

Both times he used this technique, and both times he succeeded.

Apply the Lesson

Someday, you might face an “impossible” problem. Perhaps you’ll need to find a new job when there’s no openings, find a new source of income when you’ve been stuck in your industry, save your business from bankruptcy when you’ve been in the red for months, or maybe you’ll need to deal with some other incredibly difficult problem with no solution in sight.

When the time comes, why don’t you try give Schuller’s possibility thinking game a shot? If listing down 10 possible solutions on a piece of paper sounds too simple to work, just remember that sometimes the simplest steps can lead to the greatest triumphs.

When you’re facing a difficult problem, go somewhere quiet and start thinking. Take out a piece of paper, and write down at least 10 things you can do to solve it. You can add as many as you like and you can even list down strange ideas (they might be crazy enough to work), but overall, start brainstorming and write them down.

When you’re done, start trying them out one by one.

Let’s think of some examples. Imagine that you need to find a new job or a new way to earn money and put food on the table. If I personally had that kind of problem, this is the kind of list I would make considering my own skills and location.

1. Search for openings at a job search website.
2. Ask those call center recruiters I meet at nearby shopping malls.
3. Search for legitimate job openings on Facebook.
4. Ask my friends and family for help in searching for a job.
5. Checkout freelance writing websites and content mills.
6. Ask my former art friends and art teachers for digital and comic artist openings.
7. Look for online customer service jobs.
8. Ask nearby coffee shops and businesses if they have temporary openings.
9. Become a freelance tour guide.
10. Drive for ride sharing companies part-time (Grab, UBER, etc.).

Now what if I want to start a business instead of getting a new job? Here’s a sample list that I can think of right now.

1. Create a seller page on eBay and buy and sell handicrafts I find on provinces.
2. Create a seller page on Lazada or Shopee (top online shopping websites in the Philippines).
3. Design merchandise and sell them via a “print-on-demand” system (shirts and keychains with my designs, etc.).
4. Start an Etsy shop.
5. Start a few more money-making blogs.
6. Rent a stall at a nearby mall and sell food and snacks.
7. Buy some cheap merchandise, travel to a nearby place full of people, and sell stuff on a mat on the sidewalk.
8. Go to the nearby eateries and set up a stall selling snacks there.
9. Open an AirBnb hostel slot for the spare room in our house.
10. Create anime-related merchandise and sell them at anime conventions.

Those are just some examples that I can personally do in my situation. If you try this exercise, you will likely think of solutions that are appropriate for you. Try it out yourself and see what you’ll get!

The most valuable Filipino proverb I know is “If we desire it, we’ll find many ways. If we don’t, we’ll find many excuses” (Kapag gusto, maraming paraan. Kapag ayaw, maraming dahilan.). Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

There’s an infinite number of possibilities in life, and while some solutions to problems seem like common sense, a lot of other great solutions are not so obvious. That is the reason why you need to brainstorm first. After all, almost every great thing in life started from an idea.

The next time you have a seemingly impossible problem, do what Robert Schuller suggests: Try playing the possibility thinking game!

“Nobody has a money problem—only an idea problem.”

— Robert H. Schuller

I hope you enjoyed this article! If you want to read more, check out our older articles here!