Changing the words and the language can help to unblock the problem.  I stumbled across a really simple trick over at the ‘Thinking Managers’ site.  All you do is write down the words of your problem and type them into one of the online translation services like Babelfish. Translate your problem into a different language – non European is probably best, and I’ve had some good fun with Korean – then cut and paste the new text and turn it back into English. 

By this time it’s back in your own language but no longer in your own words, and no longer in the old, fixed words of your problem.  It might have become so ridiculous it makes you laugh or at least give you the hint of a smile and – guess what – once that happens it might not even seem like a problem any more.  If you’re lucky you might even find that the germs of the solution have turned up in the translation, lurking in the problem state all the time.

I’ve had worries about money turned into not enough gold, which makes me want to start a treasure hunt.  Or “not enough time to write this” translated back to “me there is not an hour when it writes this” which makes me think, okay, it’s just sixty minutes not all of eternity, and guess what – it’s not going to write itself…

Neat, isn’t it?  Might be worth a try – and let me know if you get any really transforming translations…