A friend was telling me about the problems in her life- parents, family and career.

Could you relate to that statement? Or does it seem a little weird? I hope the latter – because otherwise you just called your parents a problem(though one is often attracted to do so).

Using the word problem has a negative connotation and brings out a frustrated response. When you think of problems also your motivation levels are slightly lower – it is the slow gasp sigh response. Recognising that these are puzzles instead, makes the situation a lot more fun- almost like a game. My career is indeed a puzzle and I can try to solve a bit of it everyday.

If your friend is always late, the problem response perhaps entails the sigh, “i waited for you” frustration and if you contained your anger – perhaps you’ll show it on someone else. Treating him as a puzzle gives a lot more options – you can try to reverse engineer his thinking, you can try to reset his watches, you can try to find the pattern in his “lateness”, you can set goals of things to do in the waiting time, etc.

It was an eye-opening switch. There are no problems- merely puzzles.

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My super-public- habit tracker –

Mar: Exercise 3   Blogging 2   No snooze 3

Feb: Exercise 13 Blogging 13 No snooze 28 Fell off the wagon mid way through Feb there…