Tag Archives: issues

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Perspective can change your life

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Problems and issues are bothersome.   Challenges give us pause and often motivate procrastination.  We perceive problems and issues as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.

Challenges are generally viewed as competitive and requiring effort to overcome.  Our perception tends to influence our behaviour when it comes to issues, problems and challenges.

Take another look

How we perceive things is within our control.  Often the default behaviour comes from our environmental and cultural influences.  We are taught to recognize problems and issues and behave accordingly.

But, does it have to be that way?  What if we trained ourselves to treat problems, issues and challenges as opportunities.  Opportunities to experience great enjoyment.

Why have a negative spin on things that can actual invigorate us and provide a thrill.  Here is an opportunity to excel, and if you don’t while it was a problem or challenge anyway, at least you had fun with it.

Perspective Matters

Entering a situation feeling reticent and pessimistic sets the wrong tone.  It can exasperate everything and simple problems suddenly become scary and complex.

Viewed as opportunities from the get go positions us for achievement.  Just by perceiving the situation differently changes the way we will behave.

Optimism is far more motivating then pessimism.  Why treat something as a problem, that is to what advantage.  Nothing springs to my mind.

Your determine how to perceive any given situation.   What harm is there in proceeding as if it is an opportunity? Really there is no downside.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Changing your World

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Sometimes the daily newscasts make me wonder if the world is a boiling cesspool of terribleness.  Worse is the fact I feel I am just an observer.

Contextually, personally, I am okay.  So the pain and strife are largely occurring elsewhere (outside of my realm of existence). It is interesting but does not affect me immediately or directly.

Basically, the news from around the world is just information which I can do little about.

Your World

Are we really isolated?  Do we just live in our own little box, observers to things outside our boundaries but not really participants?

Except in the odd, infrequent and unlikely cases where the worlds ugliness barges into our personal reality it is unlikely we will do more than observe and perhaps empathize.

Of course, happy unexpected events can burst into your world as well.  These are probably always welcome.

Helping Others

Taken in a worldwide context being the catalyst for change seems daunting and we are talking about things happening elsewhere affecting others – What can we do and really why do we care?

Helping others, (e.g., giving gifts, providing life-altering support) is actually usually very rewarding.  For most, if not all of us helping others gives personal pleasure (this applies to some extent but the extent varies by person).

Making meaningful change around the world on a macro-basis is probably not practical.  It may be a cesspool of terribleness, however;  on a micro basis, we all can elicit positive change and to some extent clean up that cesspool.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Taking Flight

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Get airborne, drive fast when you come to a bump in the road if your speed is great enough your car will leap into the air.    Metaphorically speaking, your life travels can be eased by not getting hung up on the barriers.

Common sense must prevail, the reality of speeding over a road bump, or crashing into a barrier to blast it out of the way, could be painful and destructive.

Drive with Caution

Conceptually, resolving your issues and challenges can be achieved by addressing them directly (i.e., crashing through the barrier) and this approach should not be discarded lightly.

However, some caution is warranted lest the problem, rather than overcome, becomes worse.  The key takeaway is not to let obstacles stop you from soaring.

A Balanced Approach

Aggressively addressing the bump in the road so you fly over it might not be the best method but not trying and letting the barrier impede your forward progress is not optimal either.

The balanced approach begins with recognizing the issue or challenge and consciously acknowledging the need to succeed with your goal, overcoming the problems.

This might not mean charging forward blindly, but recognize the potential roadblock and don’t let it stop you.  This is not about trying but rather knowing you can try.

Stopping before you are airborne leaves you grounded.  While you might not achieve great height, at least attempt to leave the ground.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Solutioning solutions

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Most issues are resolved either through a point in time solution (PIT) or elimination/resolution of the root cause, that is a solution based on root cause analysis (RCA).

Both methodologies result in issue resolution, however each have both benefits and drawbacks.  Which approach to use for problem resolution depends on the desired balance between effort and results.

Point in Time

Typically implementing these solutions requires less effort but might not result in a sustainable resolutin.  Basically this usually just puts and bandaid in place.  It works but the wound might still fester.

Adressing Route Cause

This method requires more effort and takes longer to implement.  First the root cause must be determined so a solution can be devised and implemented to specifically address and resolve the issue directly.  This is typically a permanent resolution.

Which Approach

Issues result in negative effects.  While you are taking the time to determine and then devise a solution for the cause of the issues the negative effects continue to compound.

Can you wait?  Perhaps the magnitude of the issue and its associated  negative effects do not justify  a significant effort to resolve.

Perhaps a combination of RCA and PIT methods is in order to first addresssome issues quickly (short term) while tackling the problem more permanently over  longer term.

Or strategically a permanent effective solution might make the most sense.  The approach is very much dependent on the number, nature and complexity of the issues together with their associated impacts.