There’s ALWAYS something that could be placed more urgently above the important tasks of the day.
Which means you could easily NEVER get to the important work.
In fact, this is precisely the case for far too many.
Don’t be a victim of urgent.
Some simple ideas:
Simple ideas become complicated when we ceaselessly collect and pivot to other (simple) ideas.
What makes simple ideas powerful is our relentless commitment to them.
Even when other shiny, new ideas come into view.
Take a simple idea and take it *seriously.*
When you’ve done your best Return to gratitude— Not your to-do list.
“Don’t be a “problem solver.” Be a “solutionist.” There is a difference. A problem solver spends a lot of time focusing on the problems. A solutionist acknowledges the problem while focusing on assessing the best solutions given the desired outcome.”
Samantha Postman, Twitter
And it’s even more than that for me.
Being a problem solver has a selfish connotation to it.
It confines the person—the solver of the problems—into a mindset where they need to be the one who does the solving.
So, rather than expanding their problem-solving capabilities and ideas to a broader network to include other (maybe more qualified) people and resources, they limit their focus to their own capabilities and resources which becomes a type of hindrance to the solution in itself.
This is where identifying as a solutionist can help.
Solutionists are focused on how they can help facilitate a solution. It’s a more selfless approach that taps into the bountiful resources that are available to each of us at any given moment in time.
It isn’t always easy to do this. Especially for those who see themselves as being great problem-solvers, do-it-themselvers, will-do-anything-to-help-you-ers.
But, how great are you really if you’re hindering the solution process? Or if you’re not helping in every possible way you can? Are you really willing to do anything for others—even if that means pointing them away from you?
Ultimately we can’t make solving problems about us. We have to make it about the act of facilitating more solutions for this world.
Because there will always be plenty of problems to solve.
No need to hog (or hinder) any one of them because of our egos.
In short: don’t keep your confusion to yourself.
Keeping your confusion to yourself is literally the act of preventing growth.
Reaching out for help when confused may be hard, but it’s the path towards growth.
If we do nothing to expand our thinking, our thinking will never expand.
And expanding our thinking is important because our opportunities in life expand in proportion to the problems we learn how to solve—which only ever fall within the confines of our thinking.
There’s no such thing as a problem-free life.
Life is merely a game of exchanging and/or upgrading problems.
If you want to ‘upgrade’ your problems, you have to upgrade your skills.
For example, investing money isn’t a problem you get to solve if you’re living paycheck to paycheck. You have to figure out how to make more than your lifestyle costs before you get to solve investing.
Running from problems and/or distracting yourself from building up higher level skills only keeps you stuck having to face the same problems because that’s what your lower level skills know how to face.
It’s those who build the most valuable/ interesting skills that get to solve the most valuable/ interesting problems in the world.
And the pathway there always starts with the problems that are right in front of you first.
Want to learn how to become shielded from the unsolicited, hateful, derogatory critiques of others? Stamp this onto your brain:
Don’t accept criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice.
And if the answer is ever, “Yes”—you would go to this person for advice—then it’s important to reflect on the following:
(1) Is this the best person for you to be going to for advice? People who give advice in hateful, derogatory, negative ways may cause more harm to our path forward than benefit.
(2) If the answer is still yes, then, assuming there is anything constructive in their feedback, we must train our minds to surgically remove the gems from the emotional weight that burdens and collapses in on what’s said.
Because here’s the bottom line: feedback won’t always come in a pretty package.
And if we can learn how to accept what’s useful, how to disregard what (and who) is not, and how to keep ourselves in mentally healthy places so we can conduct criticism surgery with precision and poise at even a moment’s notice—our growth will become inevitable.