By now you will be well-versed in the Flip It way of thinking. In fact, you could probably write some Flip It ideas of your own, and maybe you should.

This final chapter is a rapid-fire way to cover all the ideas that didn’t fit naturally into the other chapters. If it looks like a few random thoughts then that’s because it is.

If you like joined-up chapters where one idea flows effortlessly into the next then you’ll need to test out your Flip It skills, open your mind and just go with the flow.

Like all the ideas in this book, choose and focus on the ones which work best for you. I push the boundaries a little in this chapter, so give yourself permission to go off-piste and explore – who knows, you may find a revelation.

Hope is a strategy

A few years ago, I read a book called Hope is Not a Strategy by Rick Page. One recent Sunday morning I decided he was wrong – hope is a strategy and a very good one.

I was in Leadgate Methodist Church listening to a brilliant man and one of my great mentors, Reverend Barrie Lees, talk about St Paul. He quoted Paul as saying, ‘Let hope keep you joyful’. Aren’t they wonderful words? ‘Let hope keep you joyful.’

Barrie went on to explain the different levels of hope, from minor hope (i.e. I hope it doesn’t rain or I hope I can park), to major hope (i.e. I hope they find a cure, or hope for the world).

Hope keeps people going.

Hope wins when all else may have failed.

Hope can keep you joyful.

In the past, I might have been of the opinion that hope wasn’t enough and I would have encouraged you that the only way was to take massive action if you wanted results. Today I think there’s room for both.

Travelling home after the service in the car with my family, we each shared a couple of hopes. ‘I hope I get an easy exam’; ‘I hope I get the garden finished’; ‘I hope my appraisal goes well’; ‘I hope I’m being a brilliant dad’ were just some of the ‘hopes’ we shared.

We felt better. We were in fact joyful. St Paul was right. No offence to Rick Page – his book has some great content – but I think St Paul has outsold him in the bestseller lists!

Finding something you’ve lost

This one could be described as a bit mental and takes Flip It to a whole new level but I’ve found it works for me.

Have you ever lost something and found yourself in a blind panic wondering where it could have gone? I’m sure you have and I’m sure you’ve experienced that crazy activity where you end up looking in the same place again and again with naïve desperation that the item may magically turn up there.

I once lost a very important document and I was frantic, searching high and low. A new friend of mine suggested a crazy way to find it – so crazy you’ll have to Flip your thinking if you want it to work.

She took off her necklace and suggested I hold it over the palm of my left hand. Then I had to say, ‘Show me yes, show me yes, show me yes’ over and over until the chain reacted. It did and started to swing from left to right.

Next I was asked to follow the same procedure again, but this time to say ‘Show me no’ repeatedly. This time the necklace swayed from front to back.

Now that I had established my ‘yes’ and ‘no’ swings it was simply a matter of elimination to find the missing document. I remember it very clearly:

The next morning I could barely contain my excitement as I walked into the office. I gingerly opened the middle drawer, took out a pile of papers and there in the middle of a magazine was the document I had lost. It immediately came flooding back to me that I had had the document with me while on a train. I must have packed it away with the magazine in my case. Then when I emptied the case into my desk’s second drawer down (a time management technique for another day) I’d put the missing document in there too.

My logical brain tells me that this is nonsense; a swinging chain can’t find missing items. But when you Flip It – and become even more logical – it makes perfect sense.

The swaying is caused by the tiny movements you make with your hands. The more you sway, the more it moves and the more it moves the more you sway.

My memory (brilliant and perfect as it is) remembered the document being inadvertently placed in the magazine.

The chain simply acted as a channel between my memory and my physical motion.

It’s a whacky one but I double dare you to test it.

Is free worth it?

I’d wager that you, like me, wonder where all those spam emails come from. How did they get your address in the first place? Can they really offer all of that and do it for free?

I’m often asked to speak at events for free with the promise that there will be, quote, ‘Loads of people – so think of all the free publicity you will get!’ My experience of those events is that the only publicity you get is that you’ll speak for free.

If it’s worth it – it’s worth investing in. I say investing deliberately because anything worthwhile will require a combination of your time, money and desire.

Now let’s Flip It. What do you provide that people currently want or expect for free? When you promote your product or service, what makes people want to invest in you? And the big one – what needs to change, or what could you do better?

What if . . .

‘What if’ is a great way to start a conversation, especially when you’re looking for some innovation.

• What if we did it faster?
• What if we stopped doing what we do?
• What if we could do it for half the price?
• What if we could sell this to China?
• What if we decided to be the best in the world?
• What if our best customer left?
• What if our product became obsolete?
• What if the boss has got it wrong?
• What if you were 10 years younger?
• What if you were 20 years older?
• What if you had an extra hour every day?
• What if you became famous for something?

What if . . .

Keep on track

Here are three ways to keep on track and make sure you get things done.

1. Put yourself on record: A mate of mine told me several times that he wanted to do a bungee jump – he never did. Then one night we were at a barbecue with 20 other guests. Half way through dinner he mentioned it again with his usual level of zero commitment. I had to do something (you know, to help) so I made an announcement: James would be doing a bungee jump for charity in the next 90 days and he would like everyone to sponsor him. Four hundred pounds, lots of wows and pats on the back later and he was committed!
   Who are you going to tell to make sure you get something done?
2. Record your progress: If you’re on a mission and you want to stay on track then a great way to do this is to keep your thoughts and achievements on record. Use a diary or, even better, start a blog. This is a tough discipline but it’s a brilliant way to keep check on how you are doing. Then use it as a reference of your experience along the way.
3. Buddy up: If you want to go to the gym on a regular basis you are much more likely to go if you have a buddy to work out with you. I almost always exercise with my wife. On the days she doesn’t feel like exercising (rarely) I encourage her. On the days when I don’t feel like exercising (often) she encourages me.
   It’s not just the gym though – buddy up on anything and it will encourage you to see it through. Think about it. When you work with a buddy you don’t just let yourself down, which is easy, you let a friend down and that’s much harder.

The A–Z of music

Graham Willis became a music knowledge superstar in the most amazing way. To really appreciate this, you have to go back to that time when you bought albums from shops.

At the age of 14 or 15, when everyone else was buying the latest release or fad band of the moment, Graham decided to Flip It and do something completely different. He wanted to build an eclectic music collection and did so . . . alphabetically.

So he began in the first week by buying an album by an artist whose name began with the letter ‘A’, the next week ‘B’ and so on. After just two years he had the most diverse music collection you could imagine alongside an amazingly varied taste in music and a guaranteed seat at every pop quiz.

How could you apply Graham’s Flip It thinking to one of your interests?

The big clear-up

Are you a hoarder? Do you like to hang on to stuff – ‘just in case’?

What would happen if you were to Flip It and become a purger rather than a hoarder? Terrifying? Good.

By getting rid of your old ‘stuff’ you free up energy, create space and access more mental bandwidth to help you think more creatively and clearly.

The challenging part of being a purger is getting started. After years of holding on to stuff ‘just in case’, having a major clear-out can be a bit traumatic. That’s why you need to change your thinking and Flip It into a challenge.

Could you fill 10 bin bags? Or even 20? What about ordering a skip?! That’s what Anne Holliday did when I challenged her, and she filled it! Anne told me, ‘Once I got over the mental block of throwing things away, I became obsessed with filling that skip.’ Anne also gave bags full of goodies to charity shops and good causes. ‘It was a goal,’ said Anne, ‘and I always achieve my goals.’

I know you hear stories of people who discover a priceless artefact in their attic which they nearly threw out years ago. But the reason why you hear about that is because it’s so rare. If you don’t need it or use it, chuck it.

So while we’re on the subject of purging, how full is your wardrobe? The chances are it’s packed with clothes you don’t wear and never will. I have friends who go shopping and ‘can’t find anything’ to buy. Could their subconscious be saying, ‘Don’t buy it, you’ve got something just like that at home’ or ‘Put it back, there isn’t anywhere to hang it’? If that’s you, then here’s a simple and extremely effective way to sort out your wardrobe.

After you’ve worn something and it’s time to put it back in your wardrobe, hang it up on the right-hand side. When a month or two has passed, go through your clothes, starting from the far left and take out two-thirds. This is the pile that needs to go to the charity shop, be sold on eBay, given to friends or chucked. Don’t allow it back in the wardrobe unless there is a very compelling reason why you should keep it.

Think about it. You wear 10 per cent of your clothes 90 per cent of the time. You’ll never again wear some stuff and much of your wardrobe needs a major overhaul.

We were coaching a couple recently who wanted to sell some clothes and were wondering the best way to do this. After a little Flip It thinking we came up with the idea of having a social event where you could bring your unwanted clothes, try on others, swap them, buy new ones and have a fun time too. The best bit was the name: ‘The Try On, The Switch in The Wardrobe’!

Safer, stress-free, happier driving

Driving is consistently listed as one of the top five most stressful activities. Can you Flip It? I think so. Here are a few simple ways to turn this tiresome form of transport into a journey of joy.

• The MPG challenge: I used to race to my office and get frustrated when I was held up. As the traffic built up I would become more and more agitated. Not such a healthy way to drive, I’m sure you’ll agree. Then I got a new car which had a miles per gallon (MPG) read-out. I decided to Flip my driving style and set a new goal: ‘What’s the best MPG I can get on a journey?’
  As my driving style changed, my blood pressure dropped, my fuel bills were reduced and I’m sure I became a safer driver.
  Even if your car doesn’t have a ‘live’ read-out you can still play the game each time you fill up.
• Super courteous: The super courteous driver really knows how to Flip It with style. The idea is simplicity itself. Rather than getting angry with people driving too fast or too slowly, blocking you in or pulling out in front of you, simply allow and encourage them to do so (safely). Let two people out in front of you at a junction, give away a parking space. Say a big ‘thank you’ (to yourself) when a truck is hogging the overtaking lane on a bank. Turn it into a game, but play safe.
• Four-wheel university: If you spend just one hour a day in your car and, rather than listening to music on the radio, you choose to listen to educational, motivational and instructional CDs, in a year you will have listened to over 200 hours of material from some of the finest brains on the planet.
  It’s like a bonus month of full-time education with some extra night classes thrown in. Audio learning is a brilliant way to Flip It and turn unproductive, boring time often with banal radio into something brilliant.

Flip on

Now the challenge is yours. Every day you will face hundreds of choice moments, where you have the opportunity to do what you’ve always done or to choose to Flip the situation and do something completely different instead. So the next time you are feeling bored, irritated, annoyed, frustrated or unhappy, you are faced with a choice. Ask yourself, ‘What can I Flip about this situation, this day, this moment?’ Then do it!