So have you been wondering how resourceful you are? Well, we're not going to be able to really accurately judge that. But you might get an idea from something we're about to do. Just as it is difficult to teach someone to be resourceful. It's also difficult to test her resourceful a person is. However, there is an interesting test that comes close and it's fun to try.

So let's give it a shot. The purpose is to give you a feeling of how resourceful you might be, and the name of that test is Guildford's alternative uses test the alternative uses test asks you to think of as many uses as possible for a simple object, like a brick or a shoe or a paperclip, the test is usually time constrained. practicing this widely used divergent thinking tests will also help you develop your ability to think creatively. So what you do is you take an object, give yourself a time constraint. For example, two minutes And tried to come up with as many alternative uses for that object as possible. To give you an example, here are some alternative uses for a brick.

Number one, a step, you could put it on the floor and use it to step up. Maybe not that useful, but still an alternative use a paperweight or you can put a brick on your desk to keep papers in order. Not beautiful but effective. A diving aid, you could use its weight to help you dive deeper into water. Hope you can hold your breath or a cheap dumbbell. Now if you like to work out at home, and all you have is a brick, well, there you go.

What about you? Did you have any of the same ideas or something a little more clever? So I think you get the idea of what to do with alternative uses for objects. This test measures divergent thinking as it is looking for the participant to generate lots of ideas. This is different from most traditional exams, where these traditional exams focus on convergent thinking, which is your ability to reach a single correct solution to a problem. The results of the test are measured across four different sub categories.

Those are number one fluency, the number of alternative uses you can think of, to originality, how unusual those things are, which is evidence of thinking different flexibility, the range of ideas in different domains and categories, and elaboration, the level of detail and development of that idea. So why don't you get out a piece of paper and a pen, and let's get ready. But as you're getting that piece of paper and pen, we're not really going to be able to judge or score your test. This is just to give you an idea of how resourceful your thinking might be. The actual test is a little more complex. And we're not going to be able to go into that.

But let's do this just for fun. I'm going to give you two minutes to think of as many alternative uses as possible for an object I'm going to give you. So get that paper ready, get your pen ready, and I'm going to ask you, are you ready? All right, let me get out my smartphone so I can time you start when I say and stop when two minutes is up. All right, your first random object is none other than a ping pong ball. Are you ready?

Go Okay, stop, go ahead and count how many items Did you list for a ping pong ball? All right, so you're feeling a little warmed up. Great. I got another one for you. I'm gonna put that clock up again. Here's my iPhone.

Alright, are you ready? We're going to go again. The next random object is a plank of wood and go Fantastic now count again. How many items Did you list for a plank of wood? Is it more or less than the ping pong ball? All right now you've really warmed up let's just do it one more time.

Got my phone out ready to time you two minutes tops. The next random item is a paperclip and go Okay, please stop. Now count your items again, do you have more or less the first, second or third time? Hopefully you're able to get more as you progress through each of these different items. And I hope you had a little fun. creative thinking is always a good exercise.

So let's recap quickly about judging how resourceful are you? We looked at the alternative uses tests and I gave you three different objects to list alternative uses for that was a ping pong ball, plank of wood and a paper clip. I hope you had fun. Now remember being ready resourceful requires creative thinking, and we're going to go into the next lesson. What can you do to be more resourceful in the future