Creative alternatives

'The mind is the sole source of alternatives. Either the alternatives are somewhere in the mind waiting to be found, or they can be created from what is in the mind. But in this regard a person's mind is like a vast unexplored space. With such a vast area to to search for alternatives, intuitive and informal search strategies are often inadequate. Natural cognitive processes tend to guide our thought away from the areas of the mind that hold keys to creative alternatives. [...] What is needed are systematic and efficient ways to search through the mind that negate the natural tendency to think as we have thought before'
Keeney, R.L.1998. Value-focused thinking. Cambridge: University Press, 198.