Quotes of the Day - Problems vs. Solutions
“Don’t tell your problems to people: eighty percent don’t care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.” - Lou Holtz
There is always something you can do about any problem; even it if is just changing your perspective on how you feel about the problem. There is an African proverb that is being widely quoted, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” This is such a powerful paradigm shift in dealing with any problem thrown at us in work and in life. Too often, we engage in a blaming game or power struggle with others that we assume problems are only caused by other people. We therefore feel victimized and spend more time and energy going around problems than fixing them.
The truth is that we create our own experiences; we are responsible for our thoughts and actions. When a problem occurs, we can choose how we respond to it. Dr. Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People told us this very concept, “As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem.” Putting blames on someone else rarely fixes the problem since it puts the responsibility to fix it on others. This creates a tension of power struggling as often time in unsuccessful marriages or as finger pointing games as in many dysfunctional organizations.
Owning the problem puts you in control so you are no longer a victim. Study what happened to create the problem and learn from your mistakes, correct it and move on. For every problem, if you believe it is possible to solve it, tremendous things can happen to the believer.
How do you focus your energy on solutions instead of problems? Perhaps the following list that I found from the web can help:
Ten Ways to Worry Less and Accomplish More
Author unknown (however, this list is widely referenced on the web)
- Don’t think of problems as difficulties. Think of them as opportunities for action.
- After you’ve done your best to deal with a situation, avoid speculating about the outcome. Forget it and go onto the next thing.
- Keep busy. Keep the 24 hours of your day filled with these three ingredients: work, recreation, and sleep. Don’t allow yourself time for abstract thinking.
- Don’t concern yourself with things you can’t do anything about. Armchair generals don’t win battles, but they do have nervous breakdowns.
- For the time being anyway, eliminate daydreaming completely. Stop building air castles.
- Don’t procrastinate. Putting off an unpleasant task until tomorrow simply gives you more time for your imagination to make a mountain out a possible molehill. More time for anxiety to sap your self-confidence. Do it now, brother, do it now.
- Don’t pour woes and anxieties to other people. You don’t want their sympathy - it’ll merely make it easy for you to feel sorrier for yourself.
- Get up as soon as you wake up. If you lie in bed, you may use up as much nervous energy living your day in advance as you would in actual accomplishment of the day’s work.
- Try to arrange your schedule so that you will not have to hurry. Hurry, a blood brother to worry, helps shatter poise and self-confidence, and contributes to fear and anxiety.
- If a project seems too big, break it up into simple steps of action. Then negotiate those steps-link rungs in a ladder…one at a time. And don’t allow yourself to think about the difficulties of step number two until you’ve executed step number one.
What if after all means are tried and you simply can’t find a good resolution. Perhaps then we can all learn from this Tibetan proverb, “If a problem has a solution there is no need to worry about it. If there is no answer for the problem, worry will do no good.”
Smart executives and successful entrepreneurs are those who suggest solutions when they present the problems. You can do the same! So next time when a situation arises, try to think
“Am I part of the problem or am I part of the solution?”
Perhaps the reflection will focus your energy on turning a problem into a great opportunity.
