Top 5 Ways to Solve a Problem without Attracting Negativity

5. Know where you want to go. In my Masters program, we were required to take a class called Strategy. I had a Professor who worked for the IRS, had a wife and a mistress, was a College Professor at multiple schools and had 10 children (he may have owned his own company and been a minister too, but I can’t confirm those things). This man was no lie. He juggled a lot! Granted, I would not run my life the way he did but he was effective because he had a strategy behind every action he took. I understand from my writing podcast, Story Grid that that’s how Oprah is effective too. How? They both know what they want to get out of things. Where they want to end up. A final destination. The path will never be the same, but to have a starting point is the only way we can get to the goal we want to accomplish. Try it out, think what you want to get from a conversation before making a phone call. See where this intentional trajectory takes you. With all this new found efficiency in your life, comment below what new thing you are juggling.

4. Exercise. Two years ago I did 22 pushups every day (with a 95% accomplishment rate). Every time I was frustrated, I would do pushups and it totally changed my mindset. Once, my husband had us all at the theatre to see the Paw Patrol live. He had purchased the VIP tickets. But when we got to the show, we realized that our tickets had the wrong name and the show date and time was from a day earlier. I was so frustrated, but once I did my pushups in that box office, I was able to accept that we had made a mistake, we could not fix it and that the only way out of not disappointing our children was to purchase another set of tickets. We viewed the VIP tickets as a sunken cost but realized our kids would never be the wiser if we bought cheaper seats. I made a few people aware that some girls do pushups and got huge hugs from my kids and warm fuzzies for my husband for overcoming the challenge and still making it to the show on time.

3. Sleep. I feel as though this needs no explanation other than the following steps: a.Have a problem. b.Take a nap. c.Problem solved. It may even happen once you lie down, before you fall asleep.

2. Conversate on it. I know this could feel like the kiss of death for you introverts out there. So I will give you a more passive action. Instead of bringing up the concept with the check out lady at the grocery store, another parent at the bus stop or your neighbor down the street, follow the brain waves of an author by reading a book by an expert on the subject (you don’t even need to fully cognicize what they are explaining) but your mind will begin to think differently, go to a coffee shop and ride on the mental waves of others around you (a la Susan Cain from the book Quiet) or google the subject on youtube and watch someone present on that subject. New words, new perspectives, new neural pathways are eureka making.

1. Change your perspective. Years ago I read an article in a fashion magazine suggesting people should ride in a wheel chair at an art museum, just to look at the world from a different perspective. I have read about people walking into the office without wearing shoes. Instead of walking around on my feet when we lost my 4 year old’s bearded dragon, I crawled around on the floor. Thankfully from the vantage point, he appeared in front of my eyes before he was visible to my cat’s.