Something that plagues everyone throughout their life and constantly gets in the way, so to speak. Everyone wants to avoid problems, but what if we turned this around and looked for problems? Like they say, you can spot an engineer from a mile away. These are the kinds of people who will look for problems to solve. If they can't find any, they'll make some.

The final breakthrough: How to solve problems quickly and effectively.
Problems are going to come up at some point. This holds true no matter how great you are, regardless of your ability or skill, problems are going to come up. Without problems, our life gets pretty boring, don’t you think?

Solutions are simple…the most important thing is thus: Learn to spend 80% of your time on the solution and only 20% on the problem. A small problem is turned into a huge ordeal when we spend all of our time going over what the problem is, and none of our time finding a solution. The only thing we need to do is figure out what the problem is, and most of the time that become obvious in a matter of seconds. The rest of our time should be spent solving it.

Simple question is: “What do I need to do to fix this?” or “What do I need to do to make this work?” If we ask better quality questions, we get better quality answers. Open loop questions like “Why does this happen to me?” or “why does this have to happen NOW?” don’t solve the problem. What DOES solve the problem is controlling our focus, expecting an answer, knowing what result we want, trying something and adapting to new information until we receive the result we desire.

Something to remember: It doesn’t matter the question that is asked, we will come up with an answer, so ask the right ones. Even so; if we don’t come up with a solution that works, there are plenty of people who have already gone through the same, exact problem who can provide solutions.

What stops a person from being able to handle the problem is that we get overwhelmed. To avoid this, teach yourself to link massive amounts of pain to that state of being. With enough, you’ll do just about anything to avoid it.

We all know the “success formula” by now, I’m sure. Apply this to problems and they become a whole new game. So going back to “problems.”

Solutions are simple to come by:
1: stay focused. Avoid feeling overwhelmed and stay resourceful.
2: Find exactly what the problem is.
3: Come up with your best solution.
4: Notice the results of your actions.
5: If what action you’re taking is not working, change your approach.
6: If you lack the resources, find a role-model. Someone who has had the same problem and has gotten the results you want.
7: Understand that a problem is nothing more than a challenge.

Problems cause us to expand and grow. It’s simple, really. The second we are capable of overcoming a challenge presented to us, we grow and guess what else? Those “challenges” begin to get smaller and smaller until they’re nothing more than a minor nuance.

So, little exercise for today…Think of a problem and ask the following questions to address the problem itself. By the end of this, hopefully the problem will be solved and maybe we’ll have even created new opportunities.
1: What’s could be great about this situation?
2: what is not perfect: YET?
3: what am I willing to do about the issue to make it the way I want it?
4: what am I willing to no longer do in order to make things the way I want them?
5: how can I do what is necessary to make this happen, and enjoy the process?