Many people, including myself, are often trying to be normal in order to be accepted by those around them. From an evolutionary point of view, exclusion meant death. That is why people are so sensitive to it.

This includes a normal job, normal hobbies, normal schedules, habits, normal clothes. Paradoxically, brilliant people, who by definition are not normal because they are out of the norm in terms of their skills, are valued. It is as if the result is venerated and the process, the path to get there, is despised.

The result is put on a pedestal and the process is looked down upon.

Sometimes when you are stuck it is not persistence that is needed but a change of perspective.

Can we really have a nomadic life, travel and be completely free to move around if we have a job that requires us to be on site every day for a fixed number of hours? It is indeed possible to save money and then decide to travel.

Does waiting really give freedom of movement? Or is it useful to find another source of income, independent of location?

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we had when we created them - Albert Einstein

You may ask.

Doing normal things in itself is not a problem and is even necessary at times. Indeed, if you engage in polyphasic sleep, a very specific type of sleep, it can make social activities difficult. It's a surprise to be told that you have to take a nap at around 12 and 18 o'clock.

Similarly, having a very specific diet, apart from medical conditions, can add constraints that are not necessarily helpful. For example, dieting can be difficult because it is too restrictive for you and the social context (meals with friends, etc) whereas simply making sure you eat healthy, good food does most of the work.

Do you choose McDonald's or do you prefer a homemade burger, with a soft bun and a simmering sauce?

How would you feel at a meal with friends, just eating the main course, with no sauce because it's too caloric, while everyone adds more, helps themselves to the delicious dessert and offers it all to you, teasing you for eating healthy?

But it's contradictory, isn't it? One minute you're saying to do something out of the ordinary, the next minute you're saying to do the opposite...

Indeed, it may seem contradictory. And it would be if it was about everything.

It's all about choosing what you decide to do something unconventional about. More often than not, it is necessary to change perspective when a big plateau is reached. If you have evolved through a method, it is because the method works, even if it is not necessarily optimal. The problem comes when a method has worked but stops working.

Assume you want to set up a budget. The methods that are useful for saving two thousand euros will not be the same as for saving two hundred thousand euros. One seems like a normal goal and the other much less so.

How would you go about getting two thousand euros in a month? What would you do to have two hundred thousand euros this month?

I bet you didn't have the same ideas at all, although in the second case it may seem less realistic or achievable.

Wanting to do things normally makes things very impersonal. Would an artist leave his or her mark on a work if it were normal? Would it really be a signature, a style if everyone did it?

Would people do what they want if they only did normal things? Would you do all the things you would like to do if you were afraid of how others would look at you?

Would mankind have walked on the moon if no one had had the seemingly crazy idea to send someone into space?

Doing something normal all the time is very impersonal. How can you be your true self if you can't do what you love out of fear of being judged?

How is it possible to reach the top if you don't dare to do what is necessary for you, out of fear of others' opinions?

This is why sometimes the craziest ideas are great. In fact, it is often said that the line between genius and madness is thin.

So, are you ready to do something crazy?

But first....

More often than not, doing something out of the ordinary puts what you think is possible into perspective. When was the last time you said to yourself.

This sounds like a weird and crazy idea but I'll try it anyway and see

and it produced unexpected results?

In addition to avoiding stagnation by adopting different approaches when the objectives are not on the same scale, this gradually allows you to detach yourself from the opinions of others.

What is your reaction when someone tells you "it's not possible" and experience tells you the opposite? What do you say to yourself, what do you feel then?

Sometimes doing absurd things allows you to find innovative solutions. In fact, finding absurd solutions is one of the exercises carried out in brainstorming to find creative and innovative solutions.

Imagine how you will feel when, after years of stagnation, you have found innovative solutions to problems in your life.

It's weird, absurd

How many innovations have been based on a completely opposite approach to what is expected, initially appearing absurd, strange and then great. Even if it is not such a level of innovation it can revolutionise some aspect of your life.

When you have realised the possibilities of doing something absurd, you can find an aspect of your life, see a solution that seems absurd, bizarre and say "well, I'll test it" to see the results and your notion of what is possible or not change.

Sometimes you can say to yourself

It's not possible

What does possible mean? Has the notion of what is possible never evolved?

We thought it was impossible for humans to fly and now we have huge pieces of steel, full of humans, flying around the sky and taking them around the globe.

Do you think that a few centuries ago, it was thought possible to make sound, music, out of a "brick"? And yet it is possible to send messages, to talk with people on the other side of the planet with the said "brick".

I will be frowned upon/rejected

Society has evolved now. In any case, it is not possible to be liked by everyone since human beings, although having a number of common traits, have a unique association. So the question is not whether you will be rejected by others but whether if you will reject yourself out of fear of something inevitable.

How many brilliant artists have been adored AND hated at the same time?

What says it will work?

It's often a question that can be asked. And it's normal, no one wants to make unnecessary effort or take unnecessary risks.

The question is not whether it is possible, but how you are going to do what you are burning to do.

How am I supposed to do this?

This is sometimes a more difficult question to answer. A first step may be to change your approach, as you cannot expect a different result with the same actions over and over again.

I do bodybuilding as a hobby. Despite being regular, there was a time when I felt I was stagnating. I could increase the weights and reps but I couldn't build muscle mass, one of my goals at the time.

Against the usual advice to let the muscle rest and therefore to do only two or three sessions a week, I added a mini-workout which I did three times a week. So I trained my upper body five times a week. I did this for about three months.

Every time I did my mini-workout, gritting my teeth and sweating profusely, thinking that this bloody workout was never going to end, I thought about the challenge a friend and I had set ourselves years ago.

At that time we were not in the same room but we called each other every time we started. We had a challenge to do a hundred push-ups in the session, when the usual number was sixty. We'd do as many as we could, until our arms were on fire, almost out of strength, and then we'd take a break, only to do them again right after until we reached the goal, sweating more and more.

We pushed each other to the limit, trying to get one more rep.

As a result we were able to do almost eighty push-ups in one go. This was a good progression for us.

After two days of challenges, something interesting happened...

Long before that, he told me what had happened to him at a party. At that moment he had received bad news, news that makes you want to stop thinking. And so, although it was around ten o'clock, he went for a walk. On a whim, he drank some water and put on his shoes.

It was night and the moon was full. He went for a walk, following the course of a river. As he moved away from the city, the stars appeared, more and more of them. The hours and kilometres passed. The moon took on a strange shade, almost scarlet at times, illuminating his path.

Completely lost in the meanderings of his contemplation, he knew neither the time nor the distance he had travelled. He stopped for a few moments to admire the Milky Way, so beautiful without the light of the city, so brilliant and complex.

He had spotted a small sign indicating the entrance to a tiny village.

This brought him back to his "senses", telling himself that he should go back. He continued walking for a few more hours, this time in the other direction, getting more and more exhausted but continuing anyway. This seemed like a really long walk, though he'd hiked ten miles in the past. He shouldn't be this tired. His feet were starting to be sore, his legs were burning, his head was getting heavy and his tongue dry.

He finally arrived home. He let himself sink into bed.

It was only afterwards that he knew he had done thirty kilometres without stopping that night.

On the third day of the challenge, we decided to double the goal. To do not one hundred but two hundred push-ups in one session, doing as many as possible in one go. Both of us ready to do it, we went for it, galvanising each other, only stopping when our arms gave out completely.

That day, we had done nearly one hundred and sixty push-ups in one go...then completed by doing the remaining forty.

My diet during my mini workouts was rather haphazard and not optimal for this kind of goal. Between the lack of protein or the excess of sugar due to cakes, sweets or both, nothing was going right in my diet.

At the end of three months of regular training and these mini workouts, one of my friends remarked that I had put on weight, especially my arms.

you might ask.

All the methods have more or less the function of reframing the problem and what you think is possible in this regard. There is an almost infinite number of methods because all roads lead to Rome. I'll give you a few points that have helped me.

First of all, it is important to identify what you want to change. How can a doctor treat the cause of symptoms if he or she does not know about it?

Secondly, you can look at the methods you use. Are they always the same? Do you always solve the problem in the same way and are you stuck?

• taking the problem, exaggerating the solution or taking the opposite view

Then it is possible to ask what it takes to change. What is the first thing that comes to mind? What happens when you take the idea to the extreme? What happens if you do the opposite? For example, if you want to stop smoking, what happens when someone 'forces' you to smoke when you don't want to and repeatedly?

In essence it's the same idea as when you brainstorm in a company to find creative solutions. You take the opposites or extremes.

Take the time to think of one thing you want to change, see what method you use and do the opposite or push it. What does it look like?

• Creating challenge and emulate with a friend

Challenging yourself with a friend can also be helpful as it creates emulation, a healthy competition. When one seems less motivated, the other can help and vice versa. It is rare that both are not motivated at the same time. Sometimes it also helps to reframe what you think is possible. If he can do it, why couldn't I?

In addition to this, having healthy competition can provide a form of play where the pressure to perform is less and the tasks to be done are made interesting.

You even get bonus points if your friend in question is much stronger than you and pushes your limits to make you progress more and more, changing what you think is possible.

• x10 method

In the same way as pushing something to the extreme, you can use the "times ten" method. This is a form of challenge. It is important in this context to have challenge partners to push each other as the goal may seem too big or demotivating. But what is this method?

In psychology, there is the contrast principle and the door to nose technique. This involves making an unreasonable demand and then a more reasonable one. The contrast between the two makes the second more acceptable than the first.

In the same way, when you lift an object that is very heavy and then a lighter object, the latter appears lighter than if you had lifted it directly. This is a method of training to increase explosiveness in weightlifters, called the load contrast method.

Similarly, the idea of this method is to take a goal, multiply it by ten to get a new one and push yourself to the limit to do it. Chances are you won't complete your entire goal and perhaps you might see that as a failure.

But imagine if you only completed a third of your goal...you would have already surpassed your original goal by a long way!