Trying to solve the ‘No problem’

Are you constantly thinking – how to progress in career, what will happen next, how can you handle a situation, planning for retirement and kids’ education. Then, you must stop now.

In the recent days, you can realize by yourselves and hear from friends that you are thinking a lot more than it is warranted. You are not alone. This syndrome is becoming more common, given the many uncertainties in the world today. However, with a careful and an objective evaluation of the situation that you are worried about, you would conclude that it was not a “problem”’ at all to being with.

Yes, you were busy worrying about a ‘No Problem’.

A situation can be concluded as a ‘No problem’ from three dimensions

• the situation you considered to produce a negative impact, in fact does not have any impact on you,
• you have untangled the situation – found solutions to eliminate or lower the impact to acceptable levels,
• the situation is so profound or overwhelming that you do not have any option to manage it

Many a times even perceived impact is not based on actual assessment, but result of mere confusion of facts, fables heard, or just illusions based on biased information. You get so much consumed with the impact of the situation and lose sight of the problem itself.

In earlier days, you are expected to write all the steps you had gone through to solve a mathematical problem. Some marks were granted if you have followed the right steps, even though the final result was incorrect. You will be caught off guard, if you have not followed the steps but arrived at the right result. These days with multiple choice questions and computer-based exams, we lost our ability to think systematically and always wanted to quickly arrive at the solution.

You can lower a lot of stress in life and experience calmness in mind, if you systematically follow the problem-solving techniques, generally discussed in corporate environment. For some reason we believe the problem-solving techniques we apply in office environment will not work in personal life situations. Remember the DMAIC technique and the fish-bone diagrams. They and many other similar tools work the same ways in personal situation as it would in professional environment.

The moment a concern flashes in your head, get to the basics with a pen and paper – address the situation focusing all your attention on it. You will end up with one of the three dimensions discussed above, and in the process, you will end up worrying far less and be better prepared to face the situation.