Try this quick exercise. Look at the sentence below and count the number of F's.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF MANY YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS.

How many do you see?

Seeing what is actually in front of you is not always as clear-cut as it seems. Sometimes, you only see things that you think you ought to see. From a creative perspective, this can cause a number of problems -

• Key attributes of everyday items become temporarily 'invisible' to you.
• You could miss out on important details.
• You develop blind spots - areas where you lack knowledge or experience, making it difficult to see things completely.
• You could temporarily lose interest in the topic.

All of this is possible, even when looking at a simple sentence, with a simple instruction, like the example above. Each time you see something other than what is in front of you, you run the risk of endangering your creative efforts. Let's look in more detail at the four circumstances above and how you can tackle them.

Failing to spot key attributes of everyday items is understandable. It happens to everybody as they hustle through busy lives and are exposed to a lot of information. However, if you give everyday topics a bit more of your attention, you might pick up on some high quality insights -

Two friends were talking about the difficulties of adjusting from right-hand drive to left-hand drive cars, and vice versa. It is a common occurrence for people travelling between the UK and Europe, or between the UK and the USA. The first said that he had no problems with driving, until he came across an empty road with no other traffic. In these situations, he would momentarily freeze because he was unsure about which side of the road the car should be on. The second paused and said: Just keep the steering wheel in the centre of the road, then you will always be on the correct side of the road.

When you assess everyday items more closely, you might find some common rules. When you think about why the everyday things around you exist the way they do, you could gain some lasting insights - like in the driving example above. Together, common rules and lasting insights, help you to make more space for creative thinking.

Missing the detail of a situation could mean that while you have a general appreciation of a matter, you could be overlooking important fundamentals, or straying too far away from the core issue. Be sure that you understand all aspects of the problem you face, before you set out to face it. Getting to grips with detail helps you to put your ideas on a solid footing. With a robust base in situ, you can creatively investigate other avenues with no worry. You can also refer back to your detailed understanding, in order to align your thoughts. Ultimately, paying heed to the detail will guarantee that your creative solution is in line with the original requirements.

Blind spots are bigger and uglier still. They occur when you lack information about a topic. Blind spots can turn up when you least expect them, or develop over time. If you are aware that your blind spot exists, you can easily tackle the problem. You just seek out the help you need and the problem gets solved. A blind spot that develops over time is trickier to deal with. It develops because you get used to routine. You become set in your thinking. In many cases, you may not be aware that the blind spot has developed -

One summer, a practice beach landing by the army interrupted our family holiday. The beach was closed for the day, but we were welcome to watch proceedings from the nearby cliff top. There were many vehicles - ships, landing craft, helicopters, troops and tracked equipment. While watching, I was amazed to see that little had changed with this process for several decades. It looked out-of-date. It also seemed to be completely out of step with the current asymmetric format of conflict used by terrorists and pirates. The entire exercise looked like a blind spot that was overdue to be found out.

Try to avoid blind spots by changing your routine. Alter the thinking patterns that you use. Vary too, the people that you discuss ideas with. Consider checking your insights with someone who sees the world differently to you. It might be a little uncomfortable at the time, but it will be much less painful than exposing your blind spot to everyone.

A loss of interest or desire in a particular area can be a problem, but only if you are unable to apply a creative approach, or if you have no one to turn to for help. If you are lumbered with looking at the same issue for the 1,000th time, it makes sense that your interest might drop. To see the problem clearly, try to look at it from a wholly new perspective –

• Look for the root cause (Truth 19)
• Consider a new starting point (Truth 23)
• Try a new information source (Truth 32).

In parallel to using a new approach, you can ask for help from someone who is more eager about the topic than you are. Not only will this help you to solve the problem that you face, but you might get re-energised by the topic. You might also enjoy the solution that you build together.

Applying these guidelines will help you to limit the occasions when you only see what you think you ought to see. It will help you to focus on precisely what is in front of you with clarity, completeness and consistency.

So how many F's did you see? There are six F's in the sentence. Most people only see three - the ones in finished, files and scientific. The other F's are in the word 'of', which appear three times. It is a regularly used word that you might tend to overlook. Also, the F, as used in 'of' is a soft phonetic sound. In looking for F's in the sentence, you tend to look for words with the hard 'F' sound.