For many of us, the initial reaction to any problem that seams unsurmountable is to panic. Car won’t start when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere? Suddenly you have a wealth of potential problems and issues that will be running through your head: you’re going to be late, you’re going to starve, you have no phone, you’re cold, you’re scared… these are all issues but they are not the main problem and in some cases they can serve to distract you from the matter at hand.
What you need to do then is to take a breather, get a grip and define your problem.
Defining the Problem
Defining the problem means cutting through the surrounding issues and outlining the one thing that is putting you in trouble. In this case, the problem is that your car won’t start. Forget the rest and instead focus on that one central challenge.
You might also have ‘other’ problems but for this exercise the most effective thing to do is to pick just one to focus on first.
Finding the Root
When defining your problem it’s also important to make sure that you are at the root of it. The problem ‘you are going to be late’ is harder to solve because it’s more ‘high level’. If the root of your problem is ‘your car won’t start’ then that’s a better place to start. But then again perhaps that can be simplified further to ‘you’ve run out of petrol’. Suddenly the solution becomes clearer because you’ve broken it down.
Rewording the Problem
If this hasn’t immediately helped, then you might want to try rewording the problem. In this case you can think of your problem almost as an equation and by flipping it around while keeping the meaning the same you can often start seeing answers.
Your car won’t start
Your car is broken
You have no mode of transport
You have no way of getting home
These last two ‘rephrases’ in some cases might start to offer up solutions. A solution to not being able to get home is to call a friend – or maybe to even stay in the area in a hotel for the night. By rephrasing the question you can view it from different angles and this can often result in a solution.
Ultimately this all comes down to ‘knowing your enemy’. Once you’ve done this you’ll have a target you can aim for and a solution will be much more likely.
Eva Gregory is a Law of Attraction expert, speaker, author and mentor to spiritual entrepreneurs – coaches, healers and holistic practitioners. Her passion is helping spiritual entrepreneurs go from chaos to clarity, and from clarity to cash flow by learning how to tap into their own inner guidance and merge it with proven practical business strategies to create enlightened businesses of purpose, passion and prosperity. She is author of “The Feel Good Guide to Prosperity” and “Life Lessons For Mastering the Law of Attraction” co-authored with Jack Canfield. Get your FREE REPORT, “Massive Success For Spiritual Entrepreneurs” here. Learn more about how Eva can help you at www.EvaGregory.com
