How many times do we get so bogged down with our problems that we can’t see the forest from the trees? We get so consumed in our issues we don’t even realize how consumed we are. We get hyper-focused, we obsess.
What happens when we obsess?
Get Off the Hamster Wheel
It’s like being on that never-ending hamster wheel I often refer to. You never get off. Obsessing becomes circular. When we’re stuck in the circle, we can’t find an exit. It’s like if you’ve ever gotten off the highway on the wrong exit only to get back on and then end up taking the wrong one again. Eventually you get off on the right one. But not until you circled back around.
When we’re stuck in the problem, we can’t see the solution because we’re focused on the problem. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been there many times. It was frustrating, it was irritating and it got me nowhere. To get to the solution, we have to re-focus.
Sounds so simple, right?
If it were, I wouldn’t be writing this. I had to learn the hard way.
Be the One with the Answers
When I first entered the business world, I received a nugget of advice I never forgot and I bet you did too somewhere along the way: Never bring your boss a problem without a solution. What boss wants to hear problems? They get it all day long from the whiners of the world. Don’t be one of them, be the one who stands out. The one who has the answers.
Be the same way for yourself – have the answers, not the issues. It’s good to be our own best friend. Don’t you prefer friends who have answers over issues? I do. So, do it for yourself.
The first step to finding the answer is to stop focusing on the problem. Otherwise we get bogged down in the problem. Law of Attraction says “what you think about, you bring about.” Think about the problem, you get more problem.
My dad used to sit for hours in his recliner after he got home from work. We used to think he was napping until we said something and he immediately responded. (We didn’t call him “radar ears” for nothing!) He was like Einstein doing his “thought experiments” to get answers.
Einstein admitted he was connecting with the Universe, he was using his intuition. He wasn’t solely relying on his massive brain power. Brain power is good for computing, but it doesn’t always give us the answers we seek, believe it or not.
As for my dad, we never really knew if he was connecting to his intuition or if he even knew he was. From our kid’s point of view, it sure seemed like there was smoke coming from his head from all the brain cells he was burning! However he arrived at the answer, it seemed like he eventually got there.
You have to find a way to get off that hamster wheel. Go back to my blog post on the toddler brain for some ideas. Or read the one on the monkey mind. How stuck you are on the hamster wheel will determine if you need the toddler method or the monkey mind method.
Release the Death Grip
Once you can get your mind to release its death grip on the problem, go within. Clear your mind. When our mind is clear it frees up space to get creative. It gets quiet so we can listen, hear the whispers. Just like Einstein.
Ask the Universe for the answer. You may not get it right away because the Universe works on its own schedule. Actually, it works on the schedule that’s best for you, you just don’t know it is or always think it is. Trust me on that one. Been there, experienced it. The Universe brings the answer at the perfect time. Maybe you weren’t ready for it before. Maybe you would’ve missed it if it told you sooner. All that matters is that you eventually get the solution.
The solution is often so elegant, so simple it was staring you in the face. Or sometimes not. Either way the Universe knows the best outcome and will bring it to you – if you can just get off the hamster wheel of problems.
Re-focus, go within, ask.
You know what the Bible says, “Ask and you shall receive.” And so it is.
