Solution of problems. The easiest way to solve any life problems! How to help yourself solve problems

When you need to make an amazing report, increase the company's profits, or find your calling, template solutions do not work. Creative thinking is required. But where to get it? Molecular biologist and author of The Flexible Mind, Estanislao Bahrah, argues that creativity can be pumped up like biceps. Here are five exercises that will help you "build muscle" and solve any non-standard problem.

Exercise 1. Five Whys

To solve the problem, it is necessary to clearly formulate it and get to the very essence. This will help 5 "why".

For example: our task is to increase the sales of french fries.

1. Why do people prefer competitors' fries over ours? Because it tastes better.

2. Why is it tastier? Because their seasonings are better than ours.

3. Why are their seasonings better than ours? Because their chef is the best.

4. Why is our chef worse? Because we considered the change of chef to be unimportant, and for twenty years now we have been working with an incompetent employee.

5. Why haven't we hired a new chef yet? Because no one dared to offer it to the owner.

Ask your "why" and look for answers to them. Sometimes they are the solution to the problem in and of themselves.

Exercise 2. Stupid questions

When the mind compares a task to something out of the ordinary, it tries to make sense of the connection. This is how new connections are formed that lead to a futuristic, non-standard, creative idea.

To stimulate your imagination, ask yourself some "stupid" questions.

What animal is similar to my problem? How is my problem similar to a flashlight without batteries? If the problem was a lawn in a garden, what would become a weed? How can you use a can of soda that has stood in the sun for two hours to solve a problem?

Fantasize to offer the most original answer. Don't try to come up with something smart, just have fun. Write down the answers. Reread them and think about how they can help solve your problem.

Exercise 3. Three stories

Stories work wonders. -

1. Imagine: you are in a distant country. Write a short story about this place. How would you handle a creative challenge there?

2. Imagine that you live in a different historical era. Write down how you would solve the creative problem then.

3. Write a science fiction story based on a creative challenge.

Reread each story looking for associations and clues to solve your problem.

Exercise 4

The more emotionally connected you are to the problem, the more likely you are to come up with a non-standard idea.

Use your senses to visualize the final solution to the problem.

For example, you need to figure out how to present a report to the CEO. Close your eyes and think about what the perfect report looks like. What do you feel when you touch it? How does it sound? What smells? What does it taste like? Explore each sensation and think about how to achieve this in life.

Exercise 5. The Road of Ideas

Insights are like a mobile phone ringing at a party: it is not heard against the background of the general noise. To recognize the voice of the subconscious, you need to relax.

Right now, close your eyes, lie down on the floor, and let go of your imagination. Focus on your breathing. You will feel how the mind is captured by a variety of thoughts. Don't fight them, let them run freely. Then imagine the path that thoughts take.

Whether it's the choice of a new gadget, a relationship with a partner, or a new boss that's too demanding, you have four ways to get rid of this feeling:

• change yourself and your behavior;
• change the situation;
• get out of the situation;
• change your attitude towards the situation.

Undoubtedly, there is another option to leave everything as it is, but this is definitely not about solving the problem.

Well, the list is over. No matter how hard you try, you can't think of anything else. And if you want to think about how to proceed, then I suggest doing the following steps.

Action algorithm

1. State the problem in the first person

The problems “The world has not yet created the gadget that I need”, “He does not care about me” and “The boss is a beast, demands the impossible” are insoluble. But the problems “I can’t find a gadget that meets my criteria”, “I feel unhappy because my partner does not care about me” and “I can’t do what my boss requires of me” are quite workable.

2. Analyze your problem

Start with the four solutions presented above:

You may find that you would like to combine several of them, for example, change your attitude towards a situation and then change your behavior. Or maybe you will first consider several ways to choose from. This is fine.

4. After choosing one, two or even three ways, brainstorm yourself

Take a sheet of paper and a pen. For each method, write as many solutions to the problem as possible. At this stage, discard all filters (“indecent”, “impossible”, “ugly”, “shameful” and others) and write down everything that comes to mind.

For example:

For inspiration:

• Imagine a person whom you respect and who would definitely be able to help you. What solutions would he suggest?
• Ask friends and acquaintances for help: brainstorming in the company is more fun.

Choose the most appropriate for you in this situation.

6. Answer the following questions for yourself

• What do I need to do to make this decision a reality?
• What can stop me and how can I overcome it?
• Who can help me do this?
• What will I do in the next three days to start solving my problem?

7. Take action!

Without real action, all this reflection and analysis is a waste of time. You will surely succeed! And remember:

A hopeless situation is a situation where you don't like the obvious way out.

Fragment of the book by Richard Newton. From words to deeds! 9 steps to make your dreams come true. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2014.

With this book, you will draw up an action plan, create a visual scheme to achieve your goal, breaking the difficult path into understandable, short and feasible stages, and begin to systematically move towards your dream, whether it be your business, a new profession or professional skills in playing a musical instrument.

Problem solving is part of everyday life. And you have to be prepared for them, especially when you're working on a big dream. The more ambitious and complex it is, the more often you will encounter difficulties, and serious ones. As your ambition grows, you will become more and more dependent on the ability to withstand circumstances and learn from your mistakes.

Fortunately, insurmountable problems are extremely rare. And many of them can be considered out of thin air, because we ourselves create them when we start to panic and lose control of ourselves. When faced with a problem, we sometimes do not give ourselves enough time to think about the reasons for what is happening and the possible ways to change the situation. And most importantly, we do not draw conclusions and do not learn.

It takes courage and a willingness to put in serious effort to not give up and work hard to realize your dreams. In this chapter, we will try to help you understand that problems are nothing special, they can be solved in one way or another. We would like you to treat them as something ordinary, so we will tell you how to draw conclusions and learn. By following our advice, you will significantly increase your chances of success and learn to take into account your own experience.

Sources of problems

Problems are obstacles and difficulties that must be overcome in order to achieve a goal. As a rule, they arise for various reasons and are often the result of our own mistakes and failures. There are several factors that usually lead to problems. To identify them as early as possible, we advise you to regularly ask yourself the following questions.

• Am I really doing the right thing and getting results? There is no point in deceiving yourself by evaluating your work in an unreasonably positive way. Do you see a real measurable result of the work you have undertaken? Very often we do not reach our goal and face problems because we are not fully immersed in the work. But if you allow yourself to be lazy and indulge your weaknesses, you are unlikely to seriously advance on the path to your dream, and problems cannot be avoided either.
• Do I understand what resources will be needed to take the next step?

Starting to work on our dream, we do not have a complete idea of ​​what exactly we will need along the way. Therefore, you should constantly ask yourself what resources will be required in the next stage. Most often, we miss some details at the very beginning - and it is important that everything you need is at hand at the right time, and not sometime later.

• Do the people who help me and work with me understand what needs to be done, what we have already achieved and how the situation has changed? Almost always, the weakest link in a project is communication between the participants. For some reason, we think that those around us fully understand, although often we do not even give them complete information about what we expect from them. In our opinion, they know the same thing as we do, therefore, in general, everything is known and understandable. We believe that colleagues and partners know how the situation is changing and what needs to be done in the new conditions. It is very, very important to check and double check that everyone knows and understands everything, especially if you feel that communication between the participants is not well established. This way you can avoid at least some problems. The fewer assumptions you make, the better you will convey information about what is truly important and relevant.
• Am I getting paranoid? Some people think too much about what might happen. Sometimes we want to avoid failures or mistakes so badly that the thought of it completely paralyzes us. And in general, if you think a lot about potential troubles, you can provoke problems that would not have arisen with a more relaxed attitude to what is happening. Fear of failure often prevents you from giving all your strength to your dream. So do not allow yourself to worry too much and think about possible difficulties, it is better to work harder!

How to avoid problems

One simple and effective problem-solving technique will help you avoid many of them. From time to time, be sure to ask yourself the two questions we discussed earlier in this book.

1. What is most likely to go wrong, and what can be done to avoid it?
2. What can increase the chances of success?

Whenever you achieve noticeable results and add new data to the map, ask yourself these questions, remembering to take into account the real situation, the changes that have occurred in your project since work on it began, as well as potential changes. The further you move along the path to your dream, the more detailed you will be able to answer these questions, because you will better understand what else is needed in order to fulfill your dream, what techniques work more effectively and where failure may lie in wait.

In addition, the experience gained will help you notice new opportunities and increase your chances of success. Use them to avoid some problems. You will feel more confident as you gain new experiences.

How to solve a problem

In solving the problem, the main thing is to understand what it is, and not to succumb to fears and excitement. There is nothing worse than panicking about trying to change something you don't fully understand. So you can spoil everything without finding any solution. Here are some tips to help you overcome the many difficulties that arise in the course of your work.

• If you feel like you are overreacting to an incident, try to calm down. What can help here? Go somewhere where you can relax, treat yourself to something nice, take a walk or do something similar.
• Try to explain to someone you trust what happened. After discussing the problem, you will not only calm down, but you will immediately discover some mistakes that you will not notice if you start a dialogue with yourself. Describe the chronology of events as accurately as possible. Do not miss any details, even minor ones, and most importantly, listen to the questions and comments of the interlocutor.
• If you work in a team, be sure to discuss with all team members what happened. Listen carefully to their point of view to compare with your own, pay attention to discrepancies in assessments. During such conversations, the cause of the problem is easily identified.
• Getting started, you probably made different assumptions and assumptions. Be sure to check if they are correct, especially with regard to those stages of the plan where you encountered failure. We all tend to make assumptions without checking their truth. Troubles most often arise because we start from the wrong premises at the very beginning of work.
• Once you've figured out what's going on, don't be so quick to blame yourself or anyone else for the failure. The search for someone to blame is unlikely to help find a constructive way out of a difficult situation. Direct all your efforts to get the most positive result, as far as possible in the current situation. Think about the best way to move forward and how to solve the problem faster.
• Take the time to discuss everything with the team, learn the lessons learned and draw conclusions from them. What can be done to avoid this in the future? Don't assume that everyone, including you, will draw the right conclusions if you don't at least discuss what happened. The more you are concerned about the problem, the more important it is to draw conclusions and discuss them with the team.

Let go of everything that doesn't work

Successful people are able to quickly figure out what doesn’t work and abandon an unsuccessful venture in time. Your teachers and parents have probably warned you about how important it is to be able to quit a hopeless business - provided that you do not quit your dream. Change the wrong tactics, give up the wrong path, but do not give up the dream. Every day we make mistakes, as a result of which we understand what is effective and what is not. Mistakes, much more than successes, help humanity to develop.

As you work towards your dream, prepare for everyone involved in the project to make mistakes. If you learn quickly, adjust tactics, and start moving forward more successfully, mistakes will turn to you in a positive way. To fail once does not mean to fail completely. But the inability to take into account negative experience and change behavior, of course, leads to failure.

It is also important to pay attention to what problems you usually face. Let's suppose that from time to time you use the wrong tactics, but have not yet realized this and, accordingly, have not drawn conclusions. If it seems to you that the same problem occurs again and again, or you see a certain pattern in a series of troubles, then you have not noticed and have not realized repetitive mistakes. In this case, try to apply the problem-solving methods we recommend and reflect on how you generally approach the matter. Talk to other people and once you figure out what you're doing wrong, stop doing it. As Albert Einstein said, “Doing the same thing over and over again and waiting for a new result is what madness is.”

Do not be afraid to change the approach to work and see what comes of it. More often than not, no radical change is required: small improvements lead to great results and increase the chances of success.

Don't give up on your dream

Don't give up on your dream just because you've run into a problem and don't know what to do now. Be patient, both with yourself and with others. Give yourself time to figure out what's going on. Jonas Salk * said: "There is no failure - there is only a lack of perseverance."

* Jonas Salk (1914-1995) - American researcher, virologist; known as the developer of the first polio vaccine. Note. ed.

As you work towards your dream and learn more, you will begin to better visualize the result, see more clearly how to achieve the goal. We strongly advise you to correct the map whenever you learn something new and important. Perfecting the map and defining your dream more clearly is a great practice. But abandoning a dream halfway is no good. By doing this, you will only strengthen your own fears, undermine your self-confidence, and then it will become more difficult to develop. The more often you give up on your goals, the less likely it is that you will be able to realize at least something of what you dream about.

How do I know that I'm doing everything right?

You can understand that everything is going as it should, that you are persistent enough and successfully cope with problems, according to several signs:

• You talk calmly about the problems you face. When you are calm, you work through a problem from a rational rather than an emotional point of view and are more likely to find the optimal solution.
• You don't lose your sense of humor. If you are still able to laugh at your own mistakes, this means that you have accepted them, drawn conclusions and move on.
• You are well aware that now you need to do differently in order to avoid problems like the one you just encountered. You can't wait to continue working on making your dream come true.
• As problems arise, you feel more confident and no longer doubt that you can handle them.
• The same problem does not occur again and again. Even if difficulties appear, they can be considered new.

As you understand, the topic of this article will be devoted to finding effective ways to help solve the problem. Many people simply immerse themselves in the problem, making it even bigger. It's kind of like a pain. Imagine that you have a sore on your hand that does not heal because you scratch it. In addition, it not only does not heal, but becomes even larger. And some people, having no problems, come up with them. You can read about this in the article - It is described in detail there.

How to solve a problem?

You know what Laura Silva says: "Either solve your problems or stop whining". So the first step in solving the problem is to renounce the problem. That is, you do not plunge into it with your head, do not ask questions: “Well, why did this happen to me?”, "How can I solve this problem?", “Why is it always me… why am I?” and so on. Instead, you begin to see the problem not as your own, but as someone else's. You have probably noticed how skillfully we solve other people's problems. They are not ours, they don’t hurt us, they don’t cause bad emotions, you remain cool and sober, which means solution of problems comes to you very quickly and in several variants.

Many people think that only they have problems and others do not. The fact is that our whole life consists of choice, decision-making and, of course,. You can't hide from them anywhere. It's just that some have more and some have less. It also depends on the person, on their point of view. After all, what some people consider problems, others think it is. Good luck because now you can do so-and-so. As the saying goes: . So that second step in problem solving a new perspective on these issues.

Let's look at an example here. For example, someone was fired from their job. What do most people do? At first, they are indignant, swear, repeat that they were not treated fairly, break down on loved ones, bite their nails. This is a normal reaction. In my opinion, this needs to be done. But what happens next? Time passes, and a person, instead of solving his problem with unemployment, begins to lie on the couch with beer in front of the TV set and mentally resent that he was treated badly. Here is the same sore that does not heal due to the fact that he scratches it. Then the problem really becomes a problem.

What is the minority doing? They analyze what happened with a cool head, then ask themselves the question: "What can I do to solve this problem", “How do I solve the problem in the best way for me?”. Then they look at options, and what happens is they get a new job that is much better than the one they got fired from, or they open their own business and start working for themselves. And when you work for yourself, no one can fire you. In short, in this way people find new opportunities that they have not seen before. For them, the black stripe really becomes a take-off. And all because they are thinking about solving problems, and not poking around in what happened.

So if something happened to you, first calm down, and then, with a cool head, start asking yourself promotional questions: "How to solve a problem?", "What do I need to fix the situation", “What can I do now to get out of this impasse?”. As I said, the answer will definitely come to you. By the way, here's an article for you - It says how failure becomes success.

So, we got acquainted with the first two ways, namely: detachment from the problem and asking yourself propulsive questions. They are damn commonplace, so now let's move on to heavy artillery.

How to solve a problem?

So, as you understand, in order to solve problems, you first need to emotionally calm down. But how to do it, because emotions just overflow? Here is where we can help! I am not kidding. It is at the alpha level that all problems are solved, restrictions are removed, all diseases are treated. If you don't believe me, you can read the article -. There, Laura talks about how meditation effectively helps solve problems. I highly recommend you read it. Get a lot of impressions.

So!!! The first thing you should do is sit yourself on the sofa. This is not so easy to do, because thoughts about the problem just swarm in my head. So this is the hardest step. Here I advise you two options: the first is to wait until the emotions subside (then it will be easier for you to sit on the sofa), the second is to take a warm bath and lie down there. For some reason, we always climb into a warm bath willingly. It is the second method that I suggest to you. Just in the bath or shower you relax as much as possible. And it is at this moment that non-standard ideas for solving problems can come to you. As Einstein said: "Why do all the best ideas come to me during the shower?". You just literally do not understand, otherwise it turns out really funny !!!

So, it turned out to relax, however, in order to solve the problem, you should visit the alpha level as long as possible. The solution to the problem does not come immediately (although anything can happen). Therefore, I recommend that you download a special sound that contains alpha tempo rhythms. You can download by going to the article -. Also, I recommend that you visit the pages - and. All this will help you relax as much as possible and. If you do this, then consider that you have solved your problem.

The following powerful problem solving tool that I will give you will definitely help you solve the problem. Only a few know about it, and you are lucky that you are on this page. In combination with the above tips, you will not have a single problem that you cannot solve. This method is called -. I already wrote about him, you can read. This method takes a lot of time, and its effectiveness cannot be overestimated. You just take a piece of A4 sheet, write a question at the top of the sheet: "How do I solve a problem related to..." and write down all the thoughts that come into your head. I don't care what you write there. You can write absolute nonsense. The main thing is to answer the question and write without stopping.

This method helps to turn off logical thinking, increases focus many times, connects. The main thing here is to write and write without stopping. The solution may surface in five hours, or even longer. The main thing is not to give up!!! Thus, you will find solutions to any problems, any difficulties.

Finally, I want to tell you that it would be better if you "problem" replace with the word "situation". Word "problem" very poorly perceived at a subconscious level, causes black coloring, unpleasant sensations. And here is the word "situation" perceived much nicer than the word "problem". Such a replacement will also help you solve problems in the best way.

Summary:

1. We change the word "problem" on word "situation".
2. We renounce the problem (we perceive it as not our own).
3. We relax as much as possible (go to the alpha level).
4. Take a sheet, ask a question "How to solve a problem?", a "How to solve the situation?" and write whatever comes to mind.

Well good luck to you in solving trials ..., situations.

how to solve a problem, problem solving

What makes a problem unsolvable?

An unsolvable problem looks when a person 1) does not know how to solve it 2) knows, but cannot.

Let's deal with the first point first.

A person does not know how to solve a problem, does not see a solution.

This is the most difficult, nervous and unpleasant condition. When he already knows, but cannot, it is easier, it is clear what to do, the task is to gather strength. And not knowing how, a person rushes about and looks for someone who could help him see these paths. He goes to friends, looks for an answer on the Internet, makes an appointment with a psychologist.

In I have already given a universal recipe for finding solutions to any problem. To do this, it is enough to change the external locus to the internal one when considering this problem.

The explanation for this miracle is simple. A person does not know "how" when the description of the problem is beyond his influence. It is necessary to locate the problem within its own boundaries, and a solution will appear.

Look again at the examples of how the locus changes and the problems are reformulated.

Problem: "The woman I love doesn't love me."

This problem is unsolvable, because its solution is beyond the boundaries of human influence, it is about what the other person does or does not do, in this case, does not like.

How to reformulate this problem by changing the locus?

There are several options. “I worry because of the dislike of a woman” - and then the problem is experiences. You can work with feelings, you can work with suffering self-esteem, bitterness and fear of the collapse of relationships. “It seems to me that they don’t love me” - and then the problem is to figure out if they love me. Although in the latter case it is important to understand why you need to figure it out? What will he do with this knowledge? Will he leave, will he try to restore the balance? If the first, it makes sense to find out, and if the second, you can work on the balance without this knowledge.

There is a more or less general formulation for such problems, which requires an understanding of the concept of imbalance: “I am in the red in these respects” - and then the problem is its own minus, you can work with it. This work concerns the reduction of one's dependence on a person and the formation of one's person in his field, more significant than now. The second is the ability to even go a little beyond the boundaries, remaining in the internal locus (from the point of view of psychology, this is "magic", but has a scientific explanation, that is, it does not concern anything supernatural).

The inner locus is a spacesuit that allows you to go to any airless space and visit alien planets. Within the limits of one's own planet (its borders) - the locus is already internal, the spacesuit is replaced by the atmosphere.

Let's look at another problem: loss of a job (any loss of anything or anyone, even a wife)

In the internal locus, this problem will look like "experiencing the loss" and / or "search for a replacement." With one and the other problem, and even with both at once, you can work. Nothing can be done about losing a job. The work is already lost, it is beyond the influence of man. But a person can do something with his experiences: he must find ways to switch, compensate, comfort, cope with the trauma inflicted on him (raise self-esteem, restore his integrity, renew protection, and so on)

Speaking of trauma. Having an injury problem, it is very important to keep in the inner locus again. The injury has already been inflicted (or so it seems, it doesn’t matter), you can’t rewind it back, the task is to remove all the negative consequences, to recover. (Either you need to formulate the problem not as "my injury", but in another way, for example, "the struggle for the rights of other injured people"). In the treatment of trauma, "revenge" or "forgiveness" are different ways to restore internal integrity, it is important to find the way that will be most effective, but do not forget about the future. Some believe that integrity cannot be restored without revenge, but this is far from always the case. Some are sure that trying to take revenge, you will always lose more. This is also not always the case. It is important to consider your situation and carefully understand why you want revenge, what exactly it will restore or not restore, very often it gives only the illusion of restoring “justice” and “self-respect”, but sometimes not only an illusion, and then the only question is finding adequate ways.

But this is a separate topic, and if everyone is very interested in it, I will tell you more later.

The locus always needs to be moved, even when it seems that it is impossible to move it inward. There is always at least part of the problem that can be shifted within its own boundaries. Everything that is beyond the borders is unsolvable, inaccessible, does not deserve long-term attention, because nothing can be done.

Of course, knowing the solution is still very little in order to solve the problem. There must be more strength. Therefore, I wrote at the beginning of the post that the problem is unsolvable when a person does not know how, or knows, but cannot. In order to find the means to solve a problem that is in the internal locus, that is, within the limits of one's own influence, it is important to understand what blocks the forces. As a rule, this is either 1) frustration (apathy), or 2) fear, which is also uncertainty.

How to overcome or deceive frustration and how to cope with fear and self-doubt to solve the problem, I will tell.

In the meantime, there are tasks for you on the topic “changing an external locus to an internal one”.

Reframe the following problems to change the locus from external to internal. There may not be one, but several.

1. “Coworker gets tired of stupid talk at work”

2. “Mother is constantly climbing with unnecessary advice”

3. "The child does not want to do homework"

4. “Husband is offended by too rare and boring sex”

5. “Nothing interesting happens in life”

6. "Wife is constantly nagging about money"

7. "The boss is a fool"