Facing challenges can be extremely frustrating. You might need to cancel important meetings, spend money that you don’t have and face many sleepless nights. Although solutions exist to most problems, you usually believe your problem isn’t solvable - that it is the exception to every rule. You can’t seem to get out of the rut that’s keeping you down and you don’t know what steps to take to immerge from the negative space.
As mentioned in a previous blog, Function Follow Form (FFF) is the S.I.T. concept that teaches us to work backwards in order to innovate. It helps us access the inner strength needed to shift our minds and enlist positive psychology. When innovating, it is much easier to imagine a benefit of something “broken” than trying to create something from scratch. By combining the two – focusing on the benefits of the problem and working backwards to create hope – we can turn our biggest challenge into our greatest opportunity. The key is to train ourselves to focus on the positive and reshape our future paths.
These 3 steps will help you find the opportunities in challenges:
1. Train yourself to see the good in every situation. By asking yourself this key question – what are the benefits of my current situation?, you will shift your focus from one of despair to one of optimism. I can’t express enough just how crucial this step is. Without it, you will feel that you got the short end of the stick, no matter if is true or not. You are not simply playing mind games, you are setting yourself on the path to discovery.
2. List the benefits on paper – it isn’t enough to find a benefit or two. Make a list and don’t stop until you’ve exhausted all possible benefits. Do your cancelled meetings give you more time to grow yourself professionally? Does the excess money spent inspire you to finally launch the business you’ve been considering starting? Do you find that the sleepless nights are actually a very serene time to get work done?
Give your list a good look and begin to count your blessings.
3. Imagine what resources you have available to help fix your problems - Can you empower an employee to run the meeting instead of you? Can you make up the lost money in another way? Are you able to take a nap during the day since you accomplished so much work at night?
The system works because you are open to improvement. You’ve trained yourself to accept new ideas, and find simple solutions that are within your reach. So what are you waiting for? Identify your challenges and let’s start solving them!
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