Jun
Anatomy of Problem Solving
I’m looking at a screen saver on my computer that depicts fish swimming around aimlessly doing whatever it is fish do. They apparently have plenty to eat and have no worries, fears, or deadlines. They have no concerns about the stock market’s position, the condition of the real estate market, unemployment or any of the events and circumstances that dominate our people world. I don’t think they give a hoot about high gas prices! Maybe they do have problems but if they do, they don’t show.
It’s quite likely they are as oblivious to our people problems as we are to their fish problems. But we are. You and I don’t live the way fish do. We have normal activities that comprise a continuity of changing situations that we handle with ease. Then, once in a while, a situation comes along that we can’t handle quite so easily.
Our instinctive reaction is to resist the problem’s invasion into our otherwise peaceful life. We put up a protective wall against it. Now the struggle begins. This confrontational approach to problem solving is negatively oriented and produces negative results in the form of stress, anxiety and frustration .
These situations we call “problems” (“an intricate, unsettled question without an answer; a question raised for inquiry, consideration or solution”. Webster) come to us spontaneously without any apparent fault of our own. However, as soon as the answer or solution is known, the problem disappears just as spontaneously. Our job is to set in motion those steps necessary that will reveal the right answer.
As Einstein noted, “No problem can be resolved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We must lean to see the world anew”. To be spontaneously successful, we must depart from the accepted, habitual confrontational method and approach problem solving as a logical continuity of reason, facts and natural, scientific laws and principles.
Take an objective look at the world around you and realize that it is comprised of opposites. Up & down, left & right, assets & liabilities, freedom & bondage, positive & negative, etc., etc. Try as you may, I doubt that you can imagine anything that does not have an implied opposite. OPPOSITES are defined by Webster as, “elements that are so far apart and diverse as to be totally irreconcilable one to the other”.
A black square and a white circle are symbolic of opposites. They cannot be justified one to the other. One cannot be described in terms of the other. The square is black, has finite dimensions and is comprised of straight sides and square corners. The circle is white and comprises one continuous curve without beginning or ending. In every sense of the word, they are, and always will be, opposites. By their very nature and definition they cannot be commingled. You can have one or the other, but you can no more have them both at the same time than you can experience darkness in the presence of light.
It is when we attempt to justify two opposites that problems occur.
Herein lies the secret to problem solving. Equate the problem to the square and the solution or answer to the circle. They are OPPOSITES and cannot be justified one to the other. The problem is negative and the answer or solution is positive. By Webster’s definition anything negative is not a “something” of itself, but is “something that is the opposite or negation of something”. As such, in order for it to claim an existence, there must be a positive “something” (a positive answer or solution) to be negative about. According to Webster, anything positive is, “that which is real, not speculative, not fictitious and logically affirmative”.
The only conclusion we can draw is that the entire universe is infinitely and singularly “real, not speculative and logically affirmative”; it is complete and totally devoid of any opposite. Webster defines universe as, “The whole body of things observed and assumed including the whole without limit or exception and accruing everywhere”.
The only place a problem can even seem to exist is in your own consciousness. You and you alone are uniquely aware of the content of your consciousness. This mindset determines the events and circumstances that comprise your life experiences.
I know how abstract, unrealistic, impractical and over simplistic this perspective sounds but for more than 50 years I have proven its viability in my own personal and professional experiences and to the benefit of a widely diverse client base that has included many of the giants of American business.
Its efficacy is no more subject to debate than the fact that 2 + 2 = 4. It is the law which is defined by Webster as, “a rule or principle that always works (and is) enforced by a governing authority”.
“Problem solving” is really a misnomer. Any belief or concept we identify as a “problem” is really a nonentity and has no real existence and therefore there is no law to support it. We don’t deny its appearance but we do deny its reality. It is tantamount to seeing the railroad tracks meet at the horizon. We are aware of its appearance but through intelligent reasoning, we are not influenced by it. We “destroy” a problem by seeing it as a no-thing… a mirage.
This resolving is not confrontational. All we need to do is quietly reside in the infinity of our consciousness (the circle) and provide the proper mental environment that will allow the answer or solution to reveal itself.
Now, with the pressure off, you can devote your time to other pursuits. I don’t wish them any bad luck, but perhaps you could go fishing and give those guys something to think about.
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