Problems are seen as a plague to humanity. How many of you want all of them to just vanish from your lives right now? Sure, it's a lot of you.
But why? Without them, we wouldn't even have half the inventions we use today. They give us a reason to change.
If there was never an issue for warmth or light, would we have tamed fire? That's why problem solving is an art. Because it is the propeller of mankind. The gate to innovation.
I'm sure this has all happened. You're dropped into a new environment where you don't know anyone. Everyone around you is hanging out with their old friends while you're just worried that you're going to be alone.
Worried that coming to this place was a bad idea. Keep this in mind while I speak. In life, there are two types of problems.
Preventable and non-preventable. As the name suggests, preventable problems are problems that have little to no consequences and can easily be solved with effort. Think of an upcoming test.
You can prevent failing it by just studying for a little. On the other hand, we have non-preventables. These are obstacles that you probably cannot do much about. A lot of the time, something might come up that seems impossible to overcome. But with effort, anything is preventable.
Let's look back at our scenario now. Although having no friends might seem like a big issue, let's just take a moment to step back. The friends you're sitting next to right now They didn't just appear out of thin air. It took time and effort between the two of you to achieve a strong and healthy relationship.
Apply that same concept here. Go up to someone and talk to them. Eventually, you're going to meet someone who you just clicked with. It isn't always that simple, though, is it?
Conversation and trying new things is a challenge for many people. Will they judge me? What if this ends badly?
I don't know what's going to happen. There should be nothing stopping you from coming out of your comfort zone. Whenever you might think, uh-oh. This might be an issue for me. Just think to what I said before.
Is it preventable? If yes, then do something about it. If not, then stop worrying. Worrying will just bring you down.
I speak from personal experience. During my first year of middle school, I was an extremely shy kid. I hated talking to people and I knew no one in my class. I let that fear of nothing hold me back from making new friends and memories. I decided the next year I didn't want to remain in isolation anymore.
So I changed my demeanor to appear a little bit more confident. That tiny shift made my experience 1,000 times more enjoyable. I learned from it as well. It gave me confidence to talk to people outside of school and make so many new friends.
When you have an issue, despite your inner voice telling you that you can't do something, there's always something you can do. I like to think it's... problems as fears with solutions.
Fear is an indicator that work is about to begin. Your body is embracing and telling you that you can change and outcome. What if the fear doesn't seem to be helping me? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Everyone's heard this line before, and for good reason. The main point of it is your failures lead to your successes, just as hard work does. Never let problems take you down, rather help them build you up into something new and even stronger. Before we go any further, I want to go back a few- a couple hundred thousand years ago. Why do we worry?
It all comes back to problem solving. According to Psych Central, we worry because we're constantly trying to figure out how to solve problems. By nature, humans are problem solvers.
This could have been helpful back when we were sure what we were going to eat the next day, when we were being hunted by other animals. You can think of it as having an old software be put to a new task. Although, I want to say, worrying does have some good aspects to it.
Without worrying about our survival, we would have never discovered farming. Hunting was never the safest thing to do. It was a problem that took up a lot of time, energy, and lives.
Worrying about not surviving the next day gave us the drive and the reason to utilize farming instead of hunting. Without the fear of anything, we would never create a need for something. It's a tool for problem solving.
If you don't fear failing, how are you ever going to get that assignment done? It drives you forward, pushing you to do things you didn't think were possible. A great example of this is Thomas Edison.
While answering a question about his missteps, Edison was quoted saying, I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work. Instead of letting his failures get to him, he used them to propel his innovations to new reaches.
So now that we've established that our problems are really not the end of the world, it doesn't mean that acting like they're negligible is the right thing to do. Problems are both good and bad. You have to find balance in them. Sure, you might have not wanted this obstacle in front of you in the first place, but it's good because it challenges you, makes you a better person, even if you might fail at first.
Next time you come across something, remember that a sprinkle of pessimism towards your problem is healthy and may even make you a critical thinker rather than painting angels. Because at the end of the day, not everything is sunshine. I want to mention one last thing.
Simplicity. The act of breaking something down Into complicated, into easy little steps. I got this idea from my dad. One evening, I was working and stressing over some stupid unfinished project.
We were on a tight deadline, and the model I had built had broken the day before. I remember staying up late, working on this parabolic dish or something. Seeing me so stressed, he told me to just take a step, step back, and relax. Take a deep breath.
Then he said to me, just keep the job simple. We tend to overcomplicate things when nothing is ever that complicated. So break the project up one by one and finish it like that.
Long story short, I got the work done on time and got a pretty good grade. When we encounter multiple problems, it overloads us. We start stressing because there is so much to do.
Panic mode is activated. All this was useful at one point when the adrenaline rush put our bodies into fight or flight to escape from potential deaths. Flash forward to the current day, it doesn't really have much use. When we use simplicity, we break these problems down into easy steps and take action until everything is resolved. Although I want to mention, at the end of the day, there are some problems that might not have solutions, even applying the elements I mentioned today.
It is always okay to ask for help when something comes your way, especially to a trusted adult or friend. Even if they can't help, they can give you support. So.
Preventable versus non-preventable. Stop worrying. Find balance and simplicity.
With these four rules, you can break down any problem into an easy to solve tool for your advantage. Problems are not something to be feared, rather something you should be excited for. They should change how you think, evolve your perspective. The next time you have a tight deadline, it's not a problem, but an opportunity to challenge yourself and grow in ways you could not have otherwise. Everyone here has the potential to reach greatness.
All it takes is a little bit of problem solving. Thank you.