Look back: Focus On The Solution and Not the Problem

Throwback to an article from August with the main focus of getting people to focus on seeing the solution to their problem rather than the problem itself. I hope you enjoy it:

I think the reason why the problems we face in our lives stick around for too long is that we focus too much on them instead of focusing on their solutions.

If I want to solve a math question, I don't stay there lamenting about how large the question is or how difficult it looks or how lengthy the process to solve it entails. I only look at the question to understand it and pick out variables to work with, then I get to work.

Once I've done that, I forget about the problem and simply start solving it. The only condition for the problem to be solved is that I start solving it.

Every problem in this world has it's own unique variables and can be understood. If you look hard enough, you will see all of them.

The only time we should spend on any of our problems is to properly understand it and pick out the variables we'd work with. After that, we have no more business with the question once we've started solving.

Some problems may seem too large and difficult for anyone of us to solve. Some may seem very hopeless, tedious and tiring, but the only thing that counts and gives us hope for positive change is our little attempts to solve it.

Some problems need everyone of us to contribute. Some others just need experts and experienced hands to solve it, but there are problems which cannot be solved by an individual or a team of experts.

These problems are those related to the broader concerns of all humanity and needs every one of us to solve a part of it.

Don't  think that these problems which involve all of us human beings should be solved by only you or by any single person.

If you think of it that way, you will give up easily because these problems concern life itself. Neither should you expect someone else to solve it when you alone cannot.

Our only hope to solve these very large problems facing us is to understand it this way: You are holding a part of the solution to that problem. Yes, the problem is huge, but if you solve your part, I solve my part and everyone solves their part, the pieces will one day be put together and we'd find out the big problem is solved.

What happens then if you think that you can do nothing about it or think that the situation is hopeless, or wait for somebody to solve it? The answer is that you don't solve your part. And not solving your part creates problems for everybody else.

On the grand scale, you're not helping matters change because it might be the part that you're meant to solve that will inspire millions of other people to solve theirs.

Your contribution might just be what another person is waiting for so he/she can commence solving. You may just be the only one who can continue solving from where someone else has stopped.

You see how important your little effort to solve it could be and how dangerous deciding to give up could be?

To still focus on the problem or  work on the solution?

The answer is up to you.

-Nigel