Addition by Subtraction

Chances are, when you learned how to ride a two-wheeled bicycle, you practiced with the help of training wheels. These training wheels were a simple yet amazing invention that helped solve a real problem. The bike brand Huffy originated this invention back in 1949. The problem was children falling off their bicycles because they couldn’t balance. Training wheels increased the base of support making it easier for kids to stay upright while they pedaled their bike. Making it easier to learn how to bike propelled kids forward into the joys of biking.

Fast forwarding to today, there’s a new method of teaching kids to ride a bike – the balance bike. A balance bike is a small bike that a child can sit on while still maintaining foot contact with the ground. A key difference is that the balance bike lacks pedals. So, for a child to maneuver their bike this way they must use their feet. This tiny modification to the bicycle teaches a child the biggest sticking point of riding a bike – balance – before incorporating the element of pedaling. The result is that children often learn to ride a bike quicker and at a younger age when using a balance bike compared to training wheels.

This change in approach to teaching kids how to ride a two-wheeled bicycle is used in Adam Alter’s book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough, as an example of how we can emerge out of times when we are experiencing feeling stuck. For years experts looked at the problem of children struggling to balance on a bike a tried to solve it by adding elements to the traditional bicycle. However, the balance bike provided a more effective solution by subtracting key elements from the traditional bicycle.

This change in approach may seem minor, but it can be revolutionary to us when we experience times of being stuck. Feeling stuck is a universal experience! We all feel it in one way or another. Sometimes it’s feeling stuck in a dead-end job. Sometimes it’s feeling stuck with a creative block. Maybe we get stuck on a fitness plateau. And yes, we can even feel stuck when it comes to our generosity. In fact, if you have gone through the Generosity Plan process at Dynamis you may recall that this is a key question in one of the coaching sessions:

Where do you feel stuck in being generous?

Oftentimes when we get stuck, our solution is to add more to what we’re currently doing to emerge out of it. In the case of our generosity, we may reason that to get out of feeling stuck we need to do more; give to more causes, volunteer in more ways or serve on more teams. What if the way to get unstuck lies in simplifying what we’re already doing? Rather than donating to every cause or organization that asks, maybe we need to do an audit and determine which causes are truly meaningful to us and be more focused in our giving. Or, instead of spreading ourselves so thin with multiple volunteer commitments, we should simplify it and go deeper in just one or two areas. Give simplification a try with an inventive mind. It just might rekindle your generosity and grow your impact in the world!