Category: Problem Solving

When dealing with a problem, it’s helpful to list clearly what’s within your control and what’s outside of your control in regards to its resolution.

Then, with everything that’s within your control, an excellent second step is to do your part and, as Ryan Holiday would say, start the timer on doing those things.

It’s likely that after you do your part, there’s going to be another part that’s outside of your control, that’ll take time to unfold, which is exactly the timer being referred to.

Today, for example, I’m having an issue with my phone bill.

I’m getting charged for a phone that was supposed to be covered by a promo.

What’s outside of my control? Fixing the bill myself.

What’s inside my control? Talking to a representative who can fix my bill.

The longer I wait to do my part and act on what’s within my control, the more the problem will linger and agitate my mind. I also know that getting problems like these resolved can be royal pains in the butt:

“Please hold while we transfer you 5x to the proper representative.” “What was your order ID? What was the location ID? Did you take a picture of that promo?” “We can’t help you with that problem here, you need to go to this other store.”

…And procrastinating is a highly tempting option.

But, if we want the problem resolved, we need to start the timer. And looking at problem resolution this way can help. The longer we wait to act on what’s within our control, the more our problems will compound. Keep it focused. Get the ball out of your court. Start the timer.

Today, the credit card machine at the school I teach at started printing blank receipts.

It’s a problem I’ve never solved before and my instinct was to pass it off to the person who set the machines up in the first place.

…That person, however, is out of town.

And we obviously can’t take credit card transactions without being able to print receipts, so back into my court the problem came.

My initial troubleshooting resulted in me not even knowing how to open the damn thing. So, needless to say, I was off to a blazing start.

Fortunately, there was a support number. So, I called and she walked me through the process of getting it fixed, which, of course, was hair-pullingly simple.

But you know what? Now I know.

And it’s a good reminder that time invested into solving problems—even when they’re not yours—are exactly that: investments.

…Investments into building skillsets and knowledge that save you time long-run and make people very much appreciate having someone like you around.

…Before you go dishing off problems onto someone else’s lap… ask yourself, is there an opportunity for investment that you actually might prefer to have versus just giving it to someone else?

Whenever I feel redundancies in my writing, I take it as a sign worth looking deeper into.

Either a) Like a re-occurring dream, there’s some deeper message or meaning worth exploring that requires some extra unpacking time or b) Like a broken record, I need to put on some “new music” and get my head wrapped around or expanded by something else.

This helps guide my next actions so that I can either break the cycle or break into new territory.

If you don’t write, it might be worth considering how this relates to your thinking.

Redundancy can carry as much weight as, if not even more than, the substance of the thoughts themselves. Pay attention to what your mind repeatedly flashes as being worth your attention. Ignoring it will only continue to prompt it. Understanding it is the only way you might (finally) grow from it.

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P.s. 37 Robert A. Johnson Quotes from Inner Work To Convince You Dreams Aren’t Arbitrary

I have a metal awning covering the front door of my house.

It has been making an awful creaking noise whenever the wind picked up for the past few weeks.

It’s definitely not new and is something my mind started budgeting for as soon as I started hearing the screech. I figured I would first budget time to see if it was something I could fix myself. I could call over my handyman dad and see if whatever was loose could get tightened and we could clean her up—leaving her good as new.

If that didn’t work, I figured I would budget money for a new one and I started thinking about different colors and styles I might choose to replace it.

This went on and on in the background of my mind since I started noticing the reoccurring sound several weeks ago.

It wasn’t until I actually went outside today and took a closer look that I realized all of that horrible creaking… and screeching… and reoccurring annoyance…

…Was from one singular, oh-so-tiny bush branch—no bigger than my pinky—that was rubbing up against the front of the awning in such a way and at such an angle that it made that obnoxious noise.

I reached up, broke off the branch, and voila… problem solved.

How often is it the case that we do silly things like this? Make something oh-so-tiny into something way bigger than it needed to be? Something that could’ve been solved at the outset with a little up front investigation and energy… but got delayed and blown out of proportion instead…

Oh, how much energy I (we) could have saved…

I felt an interesting shift happen in me when I sent out yesterday’s post about NOT being on track with my 2024 goals.

…Like that post in and of itself helped replenish my depleted inner sponge.

…Like admitting I wasn’t perfect at following through on what I initially set out to do freed me in some unexpected way(s).

…Like sharing something imperfectly human like that made me feel more in tune with my imperfect human nature.

…And, most surprisingly, like I can now proceed forward from that “wrung out” slump and begin the process of “refilling” and engaging in additional creation efforts.

It makes me think that this is why we state the challenges we’re facing out loud… so that we can (finally) look them dead in the eye, see them, shape them, feel them, understand them, and begin the process of moving forward from them.

…Rather than allowing them to remain as open processes in the background of our mind that lurk in the shadowy parts of our awareness… sucking life energy from our days that could otherwise be devoted to solving the very things we’re just not clearly stating (and therefore not looking at) as problems.

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P.s. I finished uploading quotes from The Prophet. You can read my 18 favorites here.