BECOME SMARTER AND QUICKCER

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” A. Huxley

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."

Top people in every field are 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.

When something goes wrong, the natural tendency of most people is to become angry and look around for someone to blame. 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.

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.

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.

TEXT 2

Read the text and decide which mark – question or exclamation - we should put at the end of the title of the text. Give your reasoning.

NINE STEPS THAT CAN NHELP YOU (?) (!)

“The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them. ”

Samuel M. Crothers

To master the discipline of problem solving, you need to develop a formula or method that enables you to deal ef­fectively with almost any problem you face in the course of your career or personal life. Fortunately, there is a proven formula for problem solving and decision making that you can use in almost any situation.

Step 1: Take the Time to Define the Problem Clearly. In medicine, they say that "accurate diagnosis is half the cure." Therefore, you need to ask, "What exactly is the problem?" It is absolutely amazing how several people can become upset about a problem in an organi­zation, but every one of them has a different idea or defi­nition of the exact nature of the problem they're facing. Your job is to achieve clarity and to get everyone to agree on the definition of the problem before you move on to the business of solving it.

Step 2: Ask, "Is It Really a Problem?" Remember, there are some things that you can do nothing about. They're not problems; they are merely facts of life. If interest rates rise or the subprime mortgage market collapses, this is not a problem. It is not something that is amenable to a solution. Instead, it is something that must be worked around and dealt with.

Also, very often what appears to be a problem or a setback is actually an opportunity in disguise. Some­times, the problem does not need to be solved at all. In­stead, you are now free to do something completely different—which might be even better for you and your organization.

Step 3: Ask, "What Else Is the Problem?" Beware of any problem for which there is only one definition. The more ways you can define a problem, the more likely it is that you will find the best solution. When we work with corporations in which sales are below a desired level, we force them to ask twenty-one questions, all of which are different ways of restating the problem. Each restatement of the problem, if ac­cepted as the correct definition, leads to a different so­lution and often to a completely different direction for the organization.

For example, we will ask, "What is the problem?" and the first answer is "Our sales are too low." The next question is "What else is the problem?" Answer: "Our competitor's sales are too high." Notice the difference. If the problem is that your sales are too low, the solution may be to increase your advertising and promotion and beef up your sales activities. If the definition is that your competitor's sales are too high, the answer may be to improve your products, change your product line, lower your prices, or go into a completely different business altogether. By asking and answering a series of questions like this, we eventually find the correct definition, one that is amenable to a workable solution.

Step 4: Ask, "How Did This Problem Occur?" Seek to understand the causes of the problem so you can ensure that it doesn't happen again. In your life or business, if a problem recurs repeatedly, it is a sign that your business is poorly organized or out of control in that area. There is a defect built into your systems that is causing the same problem to recur. Your job is to find out why this happens repeatedly so you can solve the problem at its root.

Step 5: Ask, "What Are All the Possible Solutions?" The more possible solutions you develop, the more likely you will come up with the right one. The quality of the solu­tion seems to be in direct proportion to the quantity of solutions considered in problem solving. Beware a prob­lem for which there is only one solution.

Step 6: Ask, "What Is the Best Solution at This Time?" Sometimes, any solution is better than no solution. An average solution vigorously executed is often superior to an excellent solution that cannot be implemented because of its complexity or because no one has the ability to ex­ecute it.

The rule is that fully 80 percent of all problems should be dealt with immediately. Only 20 percent of problems need to be put off to a later time. If you must put off a problem, set a specific deadline for making a decision on that problem, and then make your decision at that deadline with whatever information you have at that time.

There is a rule that says that every large problem was once a small problem that could have been solved easily and inexpensively at that time. Sometimes, the best strat­egy is to "nip it in the bud." When it is clear that there is a problem and a solution, do what has to be done—and do it quickly.

Step 7: Make a Decision. Select a solution, any solution, and then decide on a course of action. Always ask, "What is our next action? What are we going to do now?"

Step 8: Assign Responsibility. Who exactly is going to carry out the solution or the different elements of the so­lution? It is quite common for a group to meet to solve a problem and to agree on a solution, but when the group meets again two weeks later, it turns out that nothing has happened. Why? No one was made specifically responsi­ble for carrying out the decision.

Step 9: Set a Measure for the Decision. What are you try­ing to accomplish with this decision, and how will you measure results? How will you know that it worked?

TEXT 3

Read two more texts (text 3 and text 4), compare all the four, digest the information, and give your own formula of effective dealing with a problem.

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