An excerpt from Do One Thing Different (1999), a solution-focused self-help book by Bill O'Hanlon:
Shift Your Attention
Method 1: Change your sensory channel.
Switch between your visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory senses. Notice which one you are using the most in the problem situation and change to another one. Or focus on something else within the same sensory channel.
Method 2: Expand your focus of attention.
Pay attention to things you haven't really noticed in the problem situation.
Method 3: Shift from focusing on the past to focusing on the present.
Focus on what is happening right where you are now rather than evoking or remembering the past.
Method 4: Shift from focusing on the present or the past to focusing on the future.
Shift from what you remember or what is happening now to what you would like to be doing or feeling in the future.
Method 5: Shift from focusing on your internal experience to focusing on the external environment or other people.
Instead of focusing on what is going on inside you (your thoughts, feelings, fantasies, experiences), focus instead on someone else or what is going on around you.
Method 6: Shift from focusing on others or the external environment to focusing on your inner world.
If tuning in to the external world or to others is what you usually do in a problem situation, try withdrawing your attention from the external and tuning in to your inner world.
Method 7: Focus on what has worked (or is working) rather than what hasn’t (or isn’t).
Focus on what is working or has worked for you in this situation or similar situations in the past.
Method 8: Change your focus from thinking or feeling to action.
Instead of focusing on your inner life, move out into the world of action.
Method 9: Ask solution-oriented questions.
Examine the typical questions you are asking yourself or others about the situation. Start asking more useful questions; that is, ask questions that help you feel better about the situation or change it for the better. In general, what and how questions tend to be more productive than why questions.
Shift Your Attention
Method 1: Change your sensory channel.
Switch between your visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory senses. Notice which one you are using the most in the problem situation and change to another one. Or focus on something else within the same sensory channel.
Method 2: Expand your focus of attention.
Pay attention to things you haven't really noticed in the problem situation.
Method 3: Shift from focusing on the past to focusing on the present.
Focus on what is happening right where you are now rather than evoking or remembering the past.
Method 4: Shift from focusing on the present or the past to focusing on the future.
Shift from what you remember or what is happening now to what you would like to be doing or feeling in the future.
Method 5: Shift from focusing on your internal experience to focusing on the external environment or other people.
Instead of focusing on what is going on inside you (your thoughts, feelings, fantasies, experiences), focus instead on someone else or what is going on around you.
Method 6: Shift from focusing on others or the external environment to focusing on your inner world.
If tuning in to the external world or to others is what you usually do in a problem situation, try withdrawing your attention from the external and tuning in to your inner world.
Method 7: Focus on what has worked (or is working) rather than what hasn’t (or isn’t).
Focus on what is working or has worked for you in this situation or similar situations in the past.
Method 8: Change your focus from thinking or feeling to action.
Instead of focusing on your inner life, move out into the world of action.
Method 9: Ask solution-oriented questions.
Examine the typical questions you are asking yourself or others about the situation. Start asking more useful questions; that is, ask questions that help you feel better about the situation or change it for the better. In general, what and how questions tend to be more productive than why questions.
