When facing a problem, most of us panic and fixate on the issue at hand. Neuroscientists have discovered that your brain is incapable of finding any solutions when you fixate on the problem.
Focusing too much on the problem narrows your ability to see possibilities because you keep reminding yourself of how hard the problem is and feeding your mind negative ideas. This triggers undesirable emotions that block your ability to come up with good solutions.
To become a good problem solver, shift your focus from the problem onto the solution. Well, you need not rule out the problem entirely. You just need to treat it differently and train yourself to pay more attention to identifying a way out of the quandary.
• When stuck in a rut, first acknowledge you are stuck. Saying things like “I am stuck in this problem” or simply observing your emotions and allowing your fear, stress, and sadness to subside on their own helps too.
• Once the emotions have settled a little, focus on the situation at hand and analyze it non-judgmentally and closely.
• Every time a negative thought pops into your head, replace it with a positive suggestion and say things like “I am finding solutions for my problem” to yourself repeatedly.
• Think of ways to fix the issue and write them down.
• When finding solutions, list down as many as you think of, even the ones you find ridiculous or impossible at first.
• Keep your mind open to whatever you can think of to improve your creativity.
• Once you have listed down a handful of solutions, analyze them in detail weighing the pros and cons of all options against one another.
• Opt for an answer with the utmost range of execs and least cons and implement it now.
When you begin focusing additional on the answer, you think that with optimism, one thing that broadens your horizons and helps you associate with innovative and effective solutions to any or all your challenges.
