The hole in the wall

Kuang Heng was a boy from a poor family who studied whenever he could. He had no money for oil or candles, and by day he worked.

His neighbour's house had light. So he cut a small hole in the wall between the two houses and read by the lamp that came through.

The image is in every Chinese schoolbook, and it's usually used as an example of industriousness. What it actually demonstrates is something more practical: he identified the constraint correctly and did the cheapest thing available against it.

The constraint was not "no light". The constraint was "no light of his own". Once he phrased it that way, the wall became a design problem.

Most people I coach are stuck because they've described their constraint as absolute. I don't have time. I don't have the credentials. I don't have the contacts.

None of those are usually absolute. They're conditions with a size. The question that changes a mood is: what is the smallest, stupidest, least dignified version of this that would still work? If the answer is "cut a hole in the wall", do that.

A caveat, because I've seen this go wrong. There are walls you shouldn't cut. If your version involves someone else's privacy or a rule that exists for a reason, find another wall.

Fine out what you're calling impossible, and write down which part of it is a physical limit and which part is a description.

MOJOWAY starts every intake with the actual constraint, then looks for the hole in the wall.