Problems are never unsolvable.
Problems are never insurmountable.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when problem solving.
1. Get acquainted with failure. If you are tackling complicated problems, you will fail. Don’t freak out and throw your hands in the air and walk away. Assess the situation, course correct, and move on.
2. Deconstruct. The old “how to eat an elephant” cliche is true. You can only eat one bite at a time. But the real work is in the transformation from whole to edible bites. Learn to love the deconstruction process. Smaller problems get solved.
3. Reconstruct and Iterate. This ties in a lot with #1. As you break problems into smaller components and solve them, sometimes when you put them back together they don’t create a workable solution as a whole. Lots of times the seemingly obvious solution creates ancillary problems that are worse than the original. If you reconstruct and the solution is no good, have the courage to fail and start again.
4. Learn and Change. I think it was Einstein who said, “We cannot solve today’s problems with the same thinking that created them.” Great problem solvers are willing to learn and change their minds.
We all have elephants to eat.
I hope you’re hungry. 😉
Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.
2 Chronicles 15:7 KJV