“Some things are in your control. Somethings are not in your control.” From NALP by Pat and Maureen Piles. Charlie Brown, Pat and Mo have similar views on dealing with predicaments and unexpected change. Charlie phrased it this way saying, “Worrying won’t stop bad stuff from happening, it just stops you from enjoying the good.”
Unexpected change or disappointing outcomes come in many shapes and sizes. Some problems come with differing possible consequences. The outcomes and consequences you experience may depend upon how you approach solving or resolving the situation. (“Resolving” and “Solving” mean different things. But you already knew that.) IKR.
Dealing with unexpected change, unanticipated problems can quite often become even more complicated depending on how you deal with them. (I’m going to focus on the positive actions and behaviors of problem solving and not the “things that make things worse”).
- Don’t fall victim to “elevating-emotions” that exacerbate the problem. (Remember
“Some things are in your control. Somethings are not in your control.”) Try to list
them out accordingly.
- When faced with the unexpected, can you recognize the existence of “mini”
problems inside the problem you first became aware of?
- Be aware of “time”. What are the deadlines and due-by components to each of the
mini-problems?
- Can the problems or predicaments be rank-ordered (prioritized)?
- What resources are available to you to put-out-the-fire? (Manpower, brainpower,
and financial resources).
With the above information gathered, do you recognize whether a successful outcome will have “fixed a symptom for the time being” or will the outcome “actually solve a problem forever”? Is it sort of an aspirin that makes the pain go away for a while or will the problem not re-occur by what you do? Problem solving is improved when a calm manner and big picture appreciation” are present.
One last analogy for problem-solving. Liken your problems to an elephant being served for dinner. How do you eat it? One bite at a time. (But you really did know that. Didn’t you?) IKR.
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