PROBLEM-PROOFED—IS IT POSSIBLE?

Here is a wild and wonderful idea— What if you became problem-proofed? What if you developed a way of thinking, a way of emoting, a way of talking, acting, and relating so that you became as it were—unable to suffer problems in the way that many suffer? What if you suddenly became no longer able to experience some problems, especially those that once upon a time ‘threw you for a loop,’ wiped out your sense of resourcefulness, and/or was such a set-back, you thought you’d never recover? Wouldn’t that be great?

Now here’s the thing—I bet you have already developed some (perhaps many) areas of life wherein you are already problem-proofed. Now wouldn’t that be amazing if that was true? To elicit this awareness in you, think back on some problems in your early years. As you do, which of those problems are not only no longer a problem, but you know deep within yourself that you could never re-experience that problem ever again. Here are some of my examples:

• At 3 years of age, I could not cross the street by myself. I could ‘look both ways before crossing,’ as I was told, but I could not figure out how far a car had to be before dashing across the street. Today, well, no problemo! I’ve got that one figured out.

• At 13, I could not go up to a girl and say hi. I was far, far too shy, too insecure, too afraid of being embarrassed, rejected, and laughed at. At that time, girls were—in my mind—far too dangerous and threatening creatures. Today, not so much.

• At 14, I couldn’t speak up or say no to someone in authority. I often wanted to, but I dared not. I didn’t even consider what might happened, I just figured the sky would fall and all life as I knew it would end, or something like that.

• At 33, I couldn’t figure out how real estate worked or how anyone could afford to buy a house; it seemed like an overwhelming problem that those who knew had secret knowledge about that wasn’t available to everyone. Today buying a house or investment property seems like the most simple and obvious thing ini the world.

How about you? What problems did you once have which today are no problems at all and, in fact, you could not re-experience them as you once did? For what challenges are you today problem-proofed? Something changed inside you to such an extent that you are now completely unable to experience that subject as a ‘problem.’

The Key to Becoming Problem-Proofed

In the previous examples, there were numerous resources which transformed a problem into no problem at all: knowledge about cars, speed, and calculating distances; personal security in oneself, accepting embarrassment as just an emotion, accepting rejection as an inevitable part of interacting with others; accepting one’s own voice as one’s right and one’s responsibility; and learning, knowledge, and skills about the field of real estate.

When it comes to solving problems, there are two key components: knowledge and skills. First, what you need to know about the particular problem. How does it work? What are the elements or variables that you need to understand? What meanings do you give to it? Second, the specific course of action you need to take in order to resolve the problem. What do you need to do? Do you know how to do those actions? Are you trained and skilled? When and where do you need to do what needs to be done? Therefore problems are solved by integrating two things:

1) By new or more accurate knowledge and meaning.

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2) By specific course of action involving skill and competence.

The first is meaning. You need to know the true meaning of a subject and chase away all distortions, biases, misunderstandings, myths, inaccuracies, etc. Once you have learned how something works and you accept that, then you are ready to act. You will now have the academic understanding and the willingness to act. Second, all of that sets you up to now take action and do what needs to be done. And of course, that requires the practice wherein you develop the skills by which you then eliminate the problem that has stopped you from achieving your goal.

Now you know why Neuro-Semantics is an integrated approach to problem-solving. We focus on the meanings which you then put into practice as you perform the required skills. This means that as you learn these two aspects of any problem—you could become problem-proofed for that problem. How amazing is that? And if you are problem-proofed yourself, you probably not only handle such problems, but enable others to do the same. How’s that for a thought to reflect on this week?