Problem-solving skills: are you learning the root or learning tops? New view
Many people complain that they have a lot of work, backing home with many works. Flooding in work, study, and family, they do not have free time for themselves. They start learning problem-solving skills. Once applied, life seems easier and lighter than before. In fact, if looking back they are still busy or busier than before. What are the real solutions? What are the bottlenecks need removing?
Problem-solving skills are taught:
After hundreds of blah blah from the teachers, we realize the problems are outside. Problems from family is not ideally happy, sisters do not unite, conflicting all day, spoiled children; my spouse, my children, and my boss do not listen to me; the job is too hard, the price is too expensive, the price escalates, life is difficult due to political instability, politicians, government. Even worse, people blame for the million stars shined in the wrong ways from twenty to fifty years ago when they were born. We find endless sources for our problems from outside. Then we start solving rigidly with the 5WH technique, with a lot of efforts, resources put in to solve the problems. After a while, exhausted with the unsolved problems, or even problems getting bigger and bigger, we stuck into extreme stress. We are ineffective in solving problems. So what is the real problems?
This reminds me of cutting trees. The trees are like your problems; tree of problems in the family, in work and in society. We start to cut down the problem tree. A tree has three parts are roots, stem, and leaves. The ineffective ones carry the ax cut trees in the leaves, tops, and flowers. They can mobilize a lot of people into cutting down foliage, breaking down branches with hundreds of people, tens of years, billions of dollars. People take place hundreds of miscellaneous things around the problem tree with the hope of the tree will die. The tree is still there, although they mobilize a lot of wealth, resources and people. Many useless rewards and conferences have put forth. Useless rewards used for tiny and small achievement which are misunderstood that the milestone achievement.
The problem solved effectively when people cut the ax into the trunk or the root of the tree. One, two, three, four, and five minutes of cutting with about one hundred cuts, with only two people and the tree fall down.
“Oh you really do not need to do this fast, so quickly like that, this is where we get paid for; this is the source of our income. We are paid by time." Moreover, “you are less recognized, praised and less rewarded.”
With the metaphorical image above, the skills learned above are important but not critical; it is equivalent to using axes to cut the leaves of the problem tree; it is hard but ineffective but ineffective people get the most rewards. It can call the paradox for effective and ineffective people.
The decisive factor in solving the problem is not the problem but the individuals who solve the problem. When looking at correlations of solving the problem, let compare the magnitude of the individual and the magnitude of the problem. Moving a ten kilograms stone is a big deal for a small child or a dwarf, but moving a ten kilograms stone is a small problem for an adult or an athlete. Another example is the fifth-grade problem is difficult for students in grade fourth but is a simple problem for students in grades sixth or seventh. Is the problem of reducing difficulty? No problem is still the same, is the problem solver that has matured over time. In the field of life, there are such problems as fatherhood, motherhood, husbandry, self-management, financial management, and spiritual management. Do you say that you are good at solving these problems? If yes, I do not believe much, look at the emotions, the mood of those around you relating to the problem. When I self-arrogate, I often remind myself “Vietnam is a developing country or actually poor country, I am an average member in the country, in society and in the industry; I live in an average apartment in Vietnam, having an average living, which means I have poor thinking in some extent. So please do not be angrily and aggressively defends my point of views - the view of poverty. Do not force others to follow my expectation”.
"I am wrong, not only with wrong actions. The deepening roots of misery are my wrong thoughts; from wrong thoughts creates wrong assumptions; from wrong, assumption creates wrong expectation; from unsatisfied wrong expectation creates wrong emotion; from wrong, emotion creates wrong actions; from wrong actions create misery and stress in life. Wrong things compound with wrong things unconsciously. So the most effective way is I need to learn more to remove my ignorance". This is my best reminder help me from the action at the tempting moment.
Mastering or cutting off the root of the problem here is to enhance the individual's capacity or individuality. Make them bigger than the problems. Instead of complaining that there are too many things, too many problems need to solve; let identifying your small, your foolishness or your ignorance, which real things need to adjust. You need to do more, practice more, challenge more, accumulate more skills, gain more wisdom and achieve the enlightenment. According to many authors, identifying the right sources of the problem has helped solve fifty percent of the problem.
From the authors’ teaching, we can find out how to cultivate the best in process of personal development. Here are some of the ways I collected:
First, Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy recommend have a learning library, lifelong learning, goal - setting, and university on the wheel.
Jim Rohn recommended a library of books, notebooks, and photos, to read, to think and to recite at least 30 minutes a day, several hours a week, one weekend at the end of the month and 2-3 weekend days of the end of the year. Work hard in creating a library, creating a diary. You will not remember the content of the lecture or interesting conference last week, last month or last year. Trust me, if you listened to an interesting lecture a year ago, you will not be able to remember ten percent of that message if you did not record or review in previous time. Please try! Do not trust your memory. Setting goals, when achieving goals, the goals are not important anymore but the person you become when achieving your goals.
Brian Tracy recommends spending at least 30 minutes a day to read the knowledge related to the skill you want to improve. Try to read a lot, one month read at least from one to three books. After one year, you have a large amount of knowledge. He used the number of reading books to illustrate, to get the doctorate, learners have to read and study approximately fifty-five books. If you read and apply fifty-five books in the skill you want to improve, you are already a self-studied doctor. Interestingly, what you are self-motivated is much more effective than the motivation from the pressure from the environment. Learning because of wanting of desiring with the enthusiasm of passion, self-discipline is far more effective than the formal learning; because these are the vital ingredients creating great achievement.
In addition, Brian Tracy also mentions "university on the wheel", meaning that every day we move at least 2-3 hours, if in the car that we listen to audiobook, interesting ideas from books, conferences or teachings. One month we have approximately ninety hours of studying, after a year we have about one thousand hours of studying, which are equivalent to the number of credits in a year of studying in college. University on wheels, after nearly of ten years listening, people can have ten thousand hours of learning, they become outliers. Read the "outliers" of Malcolm Gladwell to understand the concept of ten thousand hours.
Secondly, sources are western philosophy, oriental philosophy and street philosophy. Streets, crowds, life, nature is the place to practice, to contemplate and to apply what we learn and read. Life needs contemplation, testing, and adjustment. Always pay close attention to the PDCA in everything: planning, doing, checking and adjusting. Skillful in apply the lessons from Buddha, Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Socrates, Plato and many other great men, who create the foundations of modern philosophy. Their teaching contains empathy, love, persistence, generosity, serving heart, dedication, simplicity, self - discipline, principle, virtues, compassion, humility; which are enduring values.
Thirdly, we can gain wisdom and enlightenment by practicing meditation. In a lot of teaching of Buddha; and the follower of Buddha are Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Matthieu Ricard, people can easily practice and take the most advantage from meditation. People can create joy, happiness, and peace of mind from meditation. And the scientists, the researcher can control the focus of the mind, have a better view of themselves so that they will not fall into the trap of thinking.
Fourthly, Seth Godin, John C Maxwell, Daniel Goleman, Stephen Covey, Tony Robbin, Albert Einstein, Thich Nhat Hanh and many other extraordinary authors. They mention EQ: emotional intelligence, PQ: passion intelligence, AQ: adapting intelligence and SQ: spiritual intelligence. These are the abilities to master one's emotions, to master the self; the ability to lead others, the ability to interact with people, environment to create the wanted changes. The individuals mastered AQ, EQ, PQ, SQ is the leaders in society. In addition, they also recommend that children and adults should remain the precious characters: endless curiosity; creativity, skillfully in asking the question; nourishing the imagination and keeping the spirit of the young child inside. These are the channels to keep the energy run smoothly between individuals and environment. Use these channels people can stimulate the ideas directly to the unconscious mind, create happy emotion long before the conscious mind know what is happening. The smoother the energy, the better the body, family, and organization are. Parents can nourish these qualities in their children much more effective than the schools do. These qualities can be safe for the rigid of modern education. Pay attention to lead, learn and act so that you and others around you have these qualities of endless curiosity; creativity, skillfully in asking the question; nourishing the imagination, keeping the spirit of the young child inside, and the intelligence of AQ, PQ, SQ, EQ.Citation:Van D. Dao. Awaken You Wonderful We. Amazon.com 2017.
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