Learn to deal with problems with these 10 tips

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learning to deal with problems

If you want to learn how to deal with problems, you need three things above all: a clear focus, positive thinking and the right nose for opportunities. But of course that's easier said than done. After all, as John Lennon said: „Life is what happens while we're making other plans.“ Yes, everyday life is full of problems. Some of them are small, others really big. And learning to deal with these problems is therefore one of the most important skills you can develop in life.

What problems are there? 

Recently, a manager sat in front of me in a Business Coaching who was overwhelmed with his current job situation. „What's your problem?“ I asked him at the beginning. „Oh,“ he replied, „the word problem is forbidden in our company. In an HR training course, we learned to only talk about challenges, gifts and great opportunities.“ Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The world is full of people who go through life with rose-tinted glasses, who try to gloss over all their failures and simply smile away even the biggest difficulties.

But I don't know about you, but I have problems in my daily work, my company and in my life. There are times when things go wrong and the wind blows right in my face. And I understood one thing a long time ago. In these situations, life doesn't present me with a gift, nor am I faced with a great opportunity. No, I simply have a problem. Sometimes just a small one, but often a really big one.

No solution without problems

And what's wrong with that? We all experience ups and downs. We all make mistakes. We all have problems. Ignoring them would be foolish, because they are the best indicator that it's time to take a Shift to make. An ostrich mentality and the tactic of sitting it out may have worked for Helmut Kohl, but I don't know of a single case in which whitewashing and ignoring difficulties have led to success. Only with active change can we grow, improve and develop.

The sooner you accept that problems are not only part of life, but also the perfect starting point for personal development and professional growth, the better. And the first step is to call a spade a spade: A problem is a problem.

Learning to deal with problems: positive thinking as a miracle cure?

Now you may object: „Okay, Ilya, but don't you always emphasize the importance of the positive thinking? The answer here is a clear „yes and no“. Because the universally known positive thinking, as we know it above all from esoteric and Chakka circles is above all synonymous with permanently wearing rose-colored glasses and ignoring the facts. I consider this form of denial of reality to be extremely counterproductive and never conducive to achieving goals.

What I am advocating, however, is a radically positive attitude. Because negativity has never, I repeat, never led to positive results. The decisive factor is that Mindset, with which you go through life, with which you run your business and with which you make your decisions. If you need a guide for this, I would like to introduce you to my three top tips for sustainable success in business and in life. Here we go:

  1. Always be positive.
  2. Always be positive.
  3. Always be positive.

 

With this Attitude you are also well equipped when times get tough. Because even if the general conditions are the same, it's always your attitude that makes the difference.

Focus on problems, think in terms of solutions

So the only thing that matters is how we deal with problems. Whether we allow them to overwhelm us or whether we switch into attack mode and work on a possible solution. In fact, innovation always arises from dissatisfaction. This is how new products, services and even entire companies are created. As a practical tool for your everyday (professional) life, here is my guide with ten crisp impulses for transforming all kinds of problems into corresponding opportunities. 

If you use it consistently, you will soon find it much easier to deal with problems and use them productively.

Learning to deal with problems: 10 tips

  1. Always be positive (okay, we've been over this before, but it's just as important)
  2. Go through life with your eyes open
  3. Question procedures, processes and supposed standards
  4. Be suspicious of sentences like „That's not possible“, „We've always done it that way“ or „I'm not responsible for that“.
  5. Ask yourself regularly: „What really frustrates me?“
  6. Identify the underlying problems
  7. Analyze the problem and focus on possible solutions at the same time.
  8. Ask the following W questions: „How could it work?“ „Who could support me?“, „What would need to be done to improve the situation?“, „Why does this process/procedure/etc. exist at all?“
  9. Develop alternative ideas, possible courses of action or solutions.
  10. Act according to the pattern „Love it. Change it. Or leave it.“

Recognize the problem. Solve the problem. Wipe your mouth and move on.

In this way, you will be able to quickly integrate the project „Learning to deal with problems“ into your everyday life and establish problems as a motivating source of innovation, progress and necessary change from now on. Because as counter-indicative as it may sound. The better you are able to identify problems, the sharper your nose for worthwhile opportunities will be. We would therefore like to close this article by making the following clear once again: A problem is a problem. Period. The sooner you accept this, the better you will be able to deal with it.

Or as the American inventor Charles Kettering put it so beautifully: „A problem that is well formulated is a problem that is half solved.“ Learning to deal with problems. It can be so easy, can't it? If you keep the following in mind. Recognize the problem as such and at the same time focus on possible solutions. Summarized in three crisp steps:

1) Take off your rose-colored glasses and accept that you have a problem.

2) Solve the problem.

3) Wipe your mouth and continue.

I wish you much joy and success in turning problems into opportunities. And, of course, I am interested in how you view the topic of „Learning to deal with problems“. Feel free to write your thoughts in the comments field below.

Yours sincerely, Ilja Grzeskowitz

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