dream | act | succeed

You will find thousands of books about this topic, “Using a crisis as a chance”, but they all have one thing in common. They end up telling you how great and awesome it all is, they promise a happy ending.

The first problem I see about dealing with problems is that we have to categorize them into two groups. Personally affected and not personally affected by the problem at hand. But where do we draw the line? When are we personally affected and when we aren’t and what does it matter?

We have all been there, a friend is describing a situation and can’t find the solution when for us it’s long obvious what to do. We know exactly what our friend has to do but he or she doesn’t seem to notice. As it seems, they can’t see the forest for the trees. Why? Because they are affected by the result. It’s their life, job, or whatever on the line. But wait a minute, three months later we are in a similar situation and experience the same. How can that be possible? The answer? Now we are personally affected by it.

If that theory is right, or let’s assume for the moment that it is, then problem solving is just a matter of perspective? Are you telling us that the only thing we have to do in order to solve all of our problems is to change the way of looking at the situation at hand? Actually yes, that is exactly what I am saying.

I am the type of person that tends to overthink situations. I dive too deep into the unknown of a problem instead of just scratching the surface for my analysis. True, it’s not always bad to take the right decision in the end, but it increases the complexity of my problem solving ability. Instead of the problem in front of my eyes, I also see the other million scenarios and linked problems that could also come my way in the future. My usual reaction? I end up in this panic mode forgetting everything I have ever learned about problem solving, doing just random things without a concept or a plan in mind. But that is not working in my current job I do. I can not afford to panic. I don’t have the time because there are so many problems. And so I can’t allow those problems to enter my body and mind. I have to get them out of my system. And one way how to do that is, surprise, surprise, by changing our perspective.

It’s not always enough to pretend that we are not affected by the problem at hand, true, but once we ask ourself what we would suggest our friend to do in that very situations, the right ideas are entering the room. It’s not working all the time, true. But it works most of the time.

See you next time!