The Solution is in You!

Challenges and problems are a part of our everyday life experiences. Often, when a problem arises, we look for a solution using external resources. There are times when the solution is contained within us, even though we might not readily realize it.

When I was in elementary school, I would ask my mother for the answer to a problem. Instead of answering, she would ask me what I thought the answer was. Being one who loved using clever words to make my point, my response would be, “I don’t know, and that’s why I’m asking you.” Her counter was to instruct me to look up the answer. My next question was, “Where do I start?” She would respond by saying, “Start with the problem.” Believe it or not, we had this same conversation often.

My mother was an outstanding school teacher. She understood the value of raising a daughter who would question, investigate, discover and find solutions to problems. She wasn’t being mean. She was parenting with intention focused on my future. She taught me to look for the antithesis of the problem instead of putting all of my focus on the problem itself. She did the same thing when I asked her how to spell a word for a paper I was writing. She never told me how to spell anything. She’d say, “Look it up.”  I’d ask, “How can I look up a word I can’t spell?” Her response was always the same: “Start with what you know.” Sometimes it took an excessively long time to find the correct spelling, but I learned how to use a dictionary and a thesaurus quite well!

You have what it takes to solve problems even if you don’t have the title, authority or right to actually own the problem. Here’s my mantra for problem solving: You can’t solve a problem on the same level as the problem! Go up to a higher platform and look at the problem from a different vantage point or perspective. From up there you can see more than what you see at ground level. From ground level you can clearly see the problem but just like when you’re in a maze, it’s challenging to see a way out while you’re in the middle of the maze. Grab a tall ladder, climb to the top and look down into the maze. Now you will be able to see a way out.

What challenge or problem are you dealing with today? Are you focusing on the problem from the same level as the problem? If so, raise yourself up higher so you can see it from a different perspective. What is the antithesis? Might that help you identify the solution?

I would love to close this article by inviting you to give me a problem so I can give you the solution but the best way for me to close this is to ask you to hold onto the problem and discover the solution. Why? Because the solution is inside of you!