Self-discipline and problem-solving

Aldous Huxley once said: “Ex­perience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” Thoughts are causes and conditions are effects. Therefore, the quality of your thinking largely determines the quality of your life. The great­est mental principle is that “you become what you think about most of the time.”

Brian Tracy is of the opinion that top people in every field are intensively solution-oriented. They think about solutions most of the time. Instead of getting bogged down in who did or didn’t do something or other, the most successful people in every field concentrate on the solutions and what can be done to solve the problem.

The Sufi philosopher Izrhat Khan once said, “Life is a con­tinuous succession of problems, like waves from the ocean. They never stop.” This means that your ability to practice self-discipline, self-mastery, and self-control when faced with the never-ending flow of problems, difficulties, setbacks, and temporary failures you will ex­perience is essential to your success in business and in life.

THE INEVITABLE AND UNAVOIDABLE CRISIS

Throughout your life, you will face a river of problems—physical, financial, family, business, and po­litical. The only break in this never ending chain of problems will be the occasional crisis. If you are living a normal life, you will prob­ably experience a crisis every two or three months. And it is in these crises that you truly demonstrate the quality of your personality and the strength of your character.

It is only when you face unex­pected reversals and setbacks that you show the world what you are truly made of. All of life is a “test.” The only question for you is do you pass or fail?

By their very nature, crises come “unbidden.” You have no warning or ability to anticipate them in advance. If you did, it would not be a crisis in the first place—obviously, or you would already be prepared. When the inevitable crisis occurs, more than at any other time, self-discipline is required so you can remain calm and clear-headed in order to deal with the crisis effectively.

PERFORM AT YOUR BEST

When something goes wrong, the natural tendency of most people is to become angry and look around for someone to blame. But this is a waste of energy. It solves nothing. Instead, you must discipline yourself to remain calm, objective, and unemotional.

When you face an unexpected problem or crisis, discipline your­self to stay calm, to focus on the solution rather than the problem. Think in terms of what can be done now, rather than thinking about how it occurred and who is to blame.

Like an accident where some­one is hurt, you focus on caring for the injured person, stopping the bleeding, and minimizing the dam­age before you start analyzing what and how it happened. Practice self-discipline when dealing with a problem or crisis by immediately saying, “I am responsible,” even if, at that moment, you are respon­sible only for controlling your responses.

KEEP YOUR MIND CLEAR

Top people have developed the ability to respond effectively to a crisis, to remain calm, relaxed, and clear-eyed. They discipline themselves to stay cool and un­emotional. This enables them to think more clearly, to analyze the situation objectively, and to make better decisions.

But the moment you become angry and upset, your neocortex— or your “thinking brain”—shuts down. All you have left then is your paleocortex, your “emotional brain,” which thinks in terms of “fight or flight.” When your emo­tional brain is in charge, you think in terms of black and white, yes or no, or doing something or doing nothing. You lose the ability to think in shades of gray and to look at all the different possible ways to deal with this particular situation.

Top people realize that every problem is an opportunity to grow in self-control and personal confi­dence. In fact, you will rise in life to the height of the problems that you are capable of solving.

STEPPING STONES TO SUCCESS

Some years ago, Dr. Lawrence Peter wrote a book called “The Peter Principle.” He wrote that in every organization, people contin­ue to be promoted until they reach a level where they are no longer competent to solve the problems at that level. This is where they stop and stay for the rest of their careers.

Furthermore, he pointed out that for this reason, every orga­nization is eventually staffed by people who have reached their “level of incompetence.” Tracy be­lieves that this is especially true in government, and it is the primary reason why government is so time- and cost-inefficient, making it difficult to get anything done at all. This is usually true in any large bureaucracy.

In your own personal life, you continue to rise in your company and your profession in direct pro­portion to your ability to solve the problems and make the necessary decisions at each level of your ca­reer. “The good news is that when you think about solutions most of the time, you train your brain to be intensively solution oriented.”

No matter what problems or difficulties arise around you, your brain will be continually seeking creative ways to solve the problem. As a result, you actually become smarter and quicker, with more of your thinking brain available to you faster.

If you want to learn a physical sport, you begin by learning the basic moves and then the more ad­vanced moves. You practice these skills over and over again until you can perform them and go through the motions naturally and easily every time.

THE BIG REWARD

The main reward you get for solving problems is the oppor­tunity to solve bigger and more important problems. Your rate of pay and speed of promotion and therefore your forward movement in your career are largely deter­mined by your problem-solving ability. The more you focus on solutions, the more solutions you will come up with, and the more valuable your contribution will be to your organization.

The flip side of self-esteem is called “self-efficacy.” Your level of self-efficacy is defined as “how competent you feel you are to solve your problems and achieve your goals.”

The more competent you feel you are to solve the problems and difficulties of daily life, the more you like yourself. The more you like yourself, the more confident and competent you become in solving even larger problems and getting even more important results.

THE DETERMINANT OF YOUR SUCCESS

In your work, your prob­lem-solving ability largely deter­mines everything you accomplish. People who are good at solving problems are some of the most valuable and respected people in every area. For this reason, success has been defined as “the ability to solve problems.” This also means that happiness is the ability to solve problems. Leadership is the ability to solve problems.

When you practice self-disci­pline and self-control in face of the inevitable and unavoidable problems and crises of day-to-day life, you become more competent and effective in everything you do. You will be respected and esteemed by everyone around you. You will experience a tremendous feeling of personal power and competence. In no time at all, you will become one of the most valu­able people in your organization.

BY CAPT. SAM ADDAIH (RTD)

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