prob·lem b l m) (prm) n. 1. A question to be considered, solved, or answered. 2. A situation, matter, or person that presents perplexity or difficulty. 3. A misgiving, objection, or complaint. 1. difficulty, trouble, dispute, plight, obstacle, dilemma, headache (informal), disagreement, complication, predicament,quandary, turf war adj. 1. Difficult to deal with or control. 2. Dealing with a moral or social problem. difficult, disturbed, troublesome, unruly, delinquent, uncontrollable, intractable, recalcitrant, intransigent, unmanageable,disobedient, ungovernable, refractory, maladjusted

The Nature Of Cause We think we've defined a problem when we have described it's cause. When a problem is defined by causes, the conception is that every problem has a deep or primary cause. Cause is used to assign responsibility for problems. We understand occurrences in the natural world as a realm of fate and accident, it is impossible to anticipate all possible events and effects, so failure or accident is inevitable. Natural causation also enables us to describe a sequence of events by which one thing leads to another. To identify a cause, in view of the public, is to place burdens on one group of people instead of another. We try to prevent people from causing problems and those that do are made to compensate others for having to bear those consequences. In the social world events are understood to be the result of will, society is a realm of control and intent. By social causation we can identify the purposes or motives of a person or a group and link those purposes to their actions. The consequences of purposeful actions depend on the nature of the intent. When the intent has a bad outcome, it casts someone as willfully or knowingly causing harm. Problems are perceived as the consequences of willful human action. When intent ends with a good result, it is deemed a rational action. Inadvertent cause is the unintended consequence of willed human action such as poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Other types of inadvertence could be attributed to carelessness or recklessness. Mechanical causes include people who have no will of their own and are trained or programmed to produce specific consequences. For example, a person acts purposefully but their will is carried out through other people, machines, or automatic social procedures and routines. The very nature of human guidance or control becomes the issue because the argument, over the cause of a problem, is usually a debate about whether or not people are acting on their own free will or mechanically carrying out the will of others.

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Easy To Say, Not Easy To Assimilate When things go wrong in our lives and we encounter difficult situations, we tend to regard the situation itself as our problem. In reality, whatever problems we are experiencing are usually just a case of the mind overthinking or developing a negativity torwards the dilemma.

If we responded to difficult situations with a positive or peaceful mind then they wouldn't be problems. Eventually we might even regard them as challenges or opportunities for growth and development. You cannot continue to grow if you do not try to achieve more than what you have already mastered. If everyone truly cherished and embraced this idea, people in general, governments, and nations would not have the overall problems that exsist at this point. Wake up call.............This is just a daydream people. There are too few in the world who possess this virtue to make that dream a reality, most significantly, people who are voted into power. I have been privileged enough to have spent brief periods of time around a handful of these special people and witnessed how they can live life on life's terms and be relatively problem free. People who do not have this behavioral gift design, create, and compound all of their own problems and like a ripple traveling across a large body of water that never reaches an end, their problems inevitably become someone elses. Hey, I'm not one of the above mentioned few. I have, seemingly effortlessly, created just about every serious problem I've ever had. I've realized and felt the ripples I've sent out and know that the incoming ones, from those I would choose to be around, only exaggerated my problems because my own mind permitted them to. Man.... What's the problem?





Exploration/Resolve? Exploring problems can be uncomfortable for some people because dwelling on a problem may feel negative. There is a general expectation these days that we should always have a positive attitude in our approach to work and life. Also, when a problem is being investigated some people may take this as criticism of their performance, so it is no wonder that people want to get out of the problem phase and onto solutions as soon as they can.

If we are not clear what the problem is, and more importantly, whose problem it is, we may end up confusing the cause of the problem with the ownership of it. To illustrate this, think about a baby throwing its food. The cause of the problem is the baby but it isn't actually the baby, the problem belongs to the person cleaning up the mess. Once the problem has been clarified solutions can be considered. Just as having a problem can make anyone feel uncomfortable, action is what's going to make them feel effective. If only action could get underway at the first hint of a possible solution, it would be all hands to the pump to get rid of the problem. But if it's not a good solution, to the problem, then the action is wasted. Robust problem solving is time-consuming, but leaping into action too soon is not going to help, despite anyones eagerness to get to work fixing things. It is important to take time to gather information, ask questions and consult with others, so that we really can answer the question: What's the problem?







Unbalanced Equation Problem solving capabilities, I feel, are a gift. It’s no mystery that the majority of the general population, in this world, grossly lacks the necessary combination of character principals to face problems head on and solve them quickly, thoughtfully, and efficiently. The people in the world who have the attitude, wisdom, and common sense to qualify as problem solvers are obscenely outnumbered by those of us who do not exercise those traits in our lives. Good problem solvers have a systematic approach to solving a problem. They understand that quick solutions or hastily conceived plans rarely work and yield results that are short-term, at best. They spend time analyzing the problem from all possible angles and come up with a backup plan, in case the original idea fails. Politicians absolutely not included. Poor problem (handlers) tend to focus more on determining a cause, clogging lines of communication, and resorting to personal attacks or finger pointing in order to pass the problem along to others. People who can’t solve their own problems will often look to someone else for the relief that they cannot provide for themselves. If you think about that for a minute, wouldn’t that explain a lot about the world? When exactly is this is going to change?

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Adaptation Since we are seemingly always in a hurry, we don't have the patience to wait for delayed gratification. We want to stay accustomed to having every dilemma, every problem solved in the least amount of time. Something a lot of people fail to consider is that personal changes made can accelerate the problem solving process. There are many roadblocks that can prevent success with solving problems. Some changes we could make about ourselves might include being aware of old habits, reevaluating how we perceive things, facing and overcoming fears, being mindful about making assumptions, looking at problems with detachment instead of feeling tied too them, not procrastinating, and avoiding emotional responses by practicing rationality. Always be aware that the nature of a problem can change. These types of changes can be good but not always, sometimes it is more wise to wait and let nature take its course, some problems just naturally need to solve themselves. Sometimes drastic and quick action is necessary but most significant change takes time. There's often a very fine line between realizing the need to change one's attributes to solve problems versus recognizing that it's something only solvable in the hands of nature. I believe that intuition is the closest one can come to knowing the difference. Even though intuition is fundamentally based on hunches, it's not as irrational as some people think it is. Intuition or hunches are built on a strong foundation of facts and experiences that are ingrained in the subconscious. All the things you know and have experienced can lead you to believe that something might be true even if you've never actually experienced that reality. Intuition should be used as much as possible as long as we check it against the reality of the situation.



Design problem is any situation where you have an opportunity to make a difference, to make things better. Whenever you are thinking creatively and critically about ways to increase the quality of life (or to avoid a decrease in quality), you are actively involved in problem solving. { Instead of defining a problem in a negative way, only as something that is bad and needs to be fixed, this definition is positive and proactive. }

In every area of life, creativity and critical thinking are essential. These mutually supportive skills are intimately integrated in the problem-solving methods used in a wide range of "design" fields — such as engineering, architecture, medicine, mathematics, music, art, literature, philosophy, history, business, athletics, law, and science — where the goal is to design a product, strategy, or theory . Broadly defined, this includes almost everything in life . Decision making skills are among the most significant means of taking problems, head on, and coming out on top. When you make personal decisions, you are designing a strategy for living for the actions that are necessary to achieve goals in life.





In the context of design, ais any situation where you have an opportunity to make a difference, to make things better. Whenever you are thinking creatively and critically about ways to increase the quality of life (or to avoid a decrease in quality), you are actively involved in problem solving. { Instead of defining a problem in a negative way, only as something that is bad and needs to be fixed, this definition is positive and proactive. }In every area of life, creativity and critical thinking are essential. These mutually supportive skills are intimately integrated in the problem-solving methods used in a wide range of "design" fields — such as engineering, architecture, medicine, mathematics, music, art, literature, philosophy, history, business, athletics, law, and science — where. Broadly defined,. Decision making skills are among the most significant means of taking problems, head on, and coming out on top. When you make personal decisions, you are designing a strategy for living for the actions that are necessary to achieve goals in life.

Procrastination I’ve often thought about why we procrastinate. If one was logical, one would assume if there’s something that needed to be done and was urgent/important or rewarding enough, we’d get on to it right away. The reality however is people are seldom logical. As humans are governed partly by our intelligent mind and partly by our feelings and desires. Maybe we’re avoiding a task because we have a low sense of worth or a self-defeating mentality. Maybe we’re avoiding a task because it’s small, petty and annoying (not worth doing). Maybe we’re avoiding a task because it’s too big and we don’t know where to begin (too hard). Whatever the actual reasons are, generally when the pain associated with doing a particular task increases, so too does the level of procrastination. That’s just human nature – we run away from things which cause us pain. This in turn, prevents a lot of us from being effective problem solvers. Overcoming procrastination can take some discipline, a word that strikes fear in the hearts of many folks, including me. But I can generally get the fear to subside, when I work at it, by focusing on the simple concept of discipline: "Discipline is Not what you Do TO yourself -- it is what you Do FOR yourself."

I am intelligent and capable

I am balancing my needs to work and to have fun

I can be successful without being perfect

Very few decisions are wrong. Whatever I decide will be ok

Every day I am developing my abilities through experimenting and risk taking

I can finish, let go and move on

I am creative, competent and productive.

It’s ok for me to be successful

I am using all my resources to meet my goals

Change a habit - do it now!

Focus on the present not the future

One step at a time - keep moving forward

“Whatever you can do or dream, you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now” (Goethe)

“Ships in harbour are safe, but that’s not what ships are built for”. (John Shedd)

