My Nature

The Highest Levels Of Performance

The highest levels of performance come to people who are centered, intuitive, creative, and reflective – people who know to see a problem as an opportunity.

How to Change Your Mindset to See Problems as Opportunities:

Steel Yourself to First Impressions: Our first impressions often define our reactions to new situations, so in order to start seeing problems as opportunities, you have to avoid making first impressions altogether (which is easier said than done). Let’s take the flat tire incident in the above section; your first impression might be “I’m going to be late” or “This is going to be a pain” or “This is going to cost me money I haven’t budgeted.” These first impressions immediately illustrate the problem in a negative light, rather than what it is–a neutral situation. Prevent yourself from forming these immediate thoughts by simply thinking of the problem itself: “I have a flat tire.”

Practice this on small-scale problems, like spilling a drink, and work your way up. It’s our instinct to form first impressions, especially in urgent or problematic situations, so you’ll be fighting against nature on this one.

Distance Yourself From the Problem: Once that initial reaction stage has passed, you can focus on distancing yourself from the problem. We often have a highly self-centered view on the world, leading us to think of all the bad ways a problem could affect us. But if you think of the problem as a separate entity, unrelated to you, you’ll do a better job of tempering your emotions and thinking about the problem objectively. One helpful strategy to do this is to describe the problem as if it were happening to a friend: “Bob has a flat tire. He needs to pull off to the side of the road and either put on a spare or call a towing company.” This helps you avoid the ego-centric emotional reactions that typically arise.

Learn to Objectively Evaluate the Threats and Consequences: Your next step is to isolate the real threats and consequences of a problem from your exaggerated or imaginary ones. Doing so will help you shift your focus from seeing the problem as a burden or as a destructive force to seeing the problem as a neutral force that allows you to take action. Whenever you face a problem, make a physical or mental list of all the significant negative consequences it will have. Solidifying a comprehensive list will typically illustrate that your problem is not as destructive as it seemed on the surface; our brains are wired to imagine worst-case scenarios and exaggerate potential threats so we can over-prepare rather than under-prepare. In the modern world, this evolutionary programming is less helpful.

Ignore Reactions, Focus on Improvements: Finally, you’ll need to train your brain to think of your response to a given problem as an improvement, rather than a blind reaction. For example, in the flat tire incident, it’s easy to think “I have a flat tire. Now I have to fix it.” This is a direct reaction to the situation. Instead, try to think of current and future improvements: “I have a flat tire. This will give me a chance to use my spare.” “I have a flat tire. I should buy tire sealant to have on hand in case this happens again.” Over time, you’ll gradually start seeing problems in terms of the potential improvements they illustrate, rather in terms of the actions they demand of you. Again, as with any mental shift, start out with small scenarios and gradually work your way up to larger ones.

You’re always going to have problems in your life, whether they come up as personal issues, professional challenges, or flat-out bad luck that ruins your day. If you can train your mind to view these problems as opportunities for growth, you’ll become far more adept at handling them quickly, efficiently, and with less stress.