Problem Solving is a Lifelong Endeavor 

This article is based on the fact of life that all humans are born into challenges, but also with opportunities to overcome those challenges with basic problem solving strategies. 

The concept of problems in our lives is not about viewing them as obstacles, but it’s about having the right tools in our toolbox to conquer them. 

While we cannot tell you how to solve every life problem in one article, most problems fall into the following broad categories:

  • Success Mindset
  • Health & Fitness
  • Financial Success
  • Relationships
  • Kids & Parenting

This article is for you if you are looking to develop a success mindset. More so, to improve your financial success, develop better relationships, achieve better health and fitness, or want to be better in your parenting. The reality boils down to having the tools so you can tackle any problem that comes your way. 

A problem is only a problem when we don’t have the tools to overcome it. If you can master problem solving strategies in each of these categories, you should be able to hit so many birds with one stone.

Problem Solving Strategies for Success Mindset

When it comes to personal development and growth, there’s a thin line between success and failure. Every successful problem-solving process must begin with the right mindset. 

Having the right knowledge is great, but it’s of little use with the wrong mindset. So what does it take to develop the ability to transform your mindset? 

There are many different areas we can address, such as a growth mindset, visualization, as well as not fearing failure. Let’s break down each component, and add a little more to help you understand why your mindset is critical to achieving anything. The first thing is to understand who you really are.

Read: Self Discovery: Find your true self and achieve success

What Are You Afraid Of? 

Everybody, in some capacity, is afraid of failure. You can argue that you are afraid of failure because you are performing some act of self-preservation. But the reason we can not succeed is because of our fear of failure. Having a fear of failure can stop you from truly investing yourself in solving your problems. 

Breaking it down even further, if you are at the foot of the mountain, you can’t reach the peak until you take that first step. However, we live in a world where we are fearful of making mistakes. But to err is to be human. Risk is a scary concept, but you have to recognize that stagnation is far worse. 

Additionally, if you believe you will fail, it is more likely that you will. It’s not about the end goal, it’s about taking that first step into a larger world. If you’re not progressing in any way and taking one step at a time, you may as well be failing. So how can you develop a success mindset? 

Trusting Your Instincts

When we are scared of failure, it boils down to the fact that we’ve thought and thought about the problem. There is nothing wrong with overthinking per se, but if you want to develop a success mindset, you have to listen to your gut on occasion. When you dwell on the past, this will influence your decision-making abilities. 

Remember, our brain is built to be irrational, and when we do our best to avoid completing the task, this boils down to the little voice in the back of our mind telling us to not do something. This is also known as the lizard brain, and the lizard brain is almost a hangover from our cavemen days. 

The lizard brain is responsible for fear and rage, and really hates change and risk and achievements, all of the things that we want to achieve. When we start to listen to our intuition and start acting on instinct, we must be confident that we are going in the right direction. 

Adopting a Positive Mindset

Success is subjective to the individual. A success mindset is not about one thing, but it’s about manifesting the things in your life that you want. This is why a positive mindset is essential, and if you can only change one thing about the way you think, it should be this. Optimistic people are happier, but they are also more successful, as long as they have a realistic approach to their outcomes and goals. 

Some of us don’t necessarily appreciate the eternal optimist, but it’s not about always showing our teeth, but about having a glass half full mentality. 

Your brain is unable to tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined.  As such,  you can then start to manifest success and positivity, but also realize that positivity will reap further positivity, which will guide everything you do. 

You can do this by incorporating positivity into your life in ways such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which retrains your brain in how you are thinking. Additionally, you can start to adopt visualization techniques, which you can perform on a daily basis, as well as positive self-talk. 

When we incorporate positivity into our thinking patterns, there is no room for negativity. This is absolutely pivotal to our success mindset.

To learn more about success mindset, see these Success Principles>>>

Problem Solving Strategies for Health & Fitness 

Survival and longevity of life are determined by the condition of your mind and body. 

Whether we’re talking about building a better immune system, the ability to perform daily tasks, or attracting a mate, there’s a minimum number of things you must do for your body to function as it should. 

And it all boils down to the frame and functionality that you carry with you in your daily life. The topic of health and fitness is incredibly subjective in the modern world. Everybody appears to have their own one true vision of what defines health and fitness. But when it comes to health and exercise, the rules are, in many ways, simple. 

Do You Hear That? That’s Your Body Talking…

You may think that you’ve got to consume a certain level of vitamins and minerals every day in order to be healthier, but the reality comes down to listening to your body. This is something we don’t always do because of the abundance of information out there telling us to follow a vegan diet, a carnivore diet, the keto way of life, etc. 

When we start to focus on what our body needs by listening to it, we can tap into our individual needs. 

Any nutritionist will tell you that your body is not the same as the person next to you, which is why you must develop a form of intuition, which means learning to calm yourself down.

Stress is one of those things that can impact the immune system, positively and negatively. Chronic stress, or long-term stress, is unhealthy. But stress in small doses can motivate you. And the foundation for longevity is about reducing our stress to a manageable level. 

This doesn’t mean bringing your heart rate down as low as possible, because this can be bad for your body. 

Nor should it be about having your heart rate at an elevated level constantly, but somewhere in between. That’s what forms the basis of heart rate variability, or the moments in between heartbeats, which is a sign of health and longevity. 

To learn more about success in health and fitness, see how to ‘Create a Personal Development Plan for Health & Fitness’.

Addressing Your “Diet”

Diet is another component that we must recognize is key to how we will operate throughout our lives. When we eat something that our body doesn’t agree with, it will produce symptoms of inflammation, which could be brain fog, achy joints, or fatigue. 

To establish a solid baseline, it’s important to check if you have any conditions that can hinder your ability to enjoy food. For example, getting blood tests to see if you are lactose intolerant or have a sensitivity to wheat and gluten. 

When you start to eradicate the things that your body doesn’t agree with, you should feel the difference, and will provide you with the solid foundation to get yourself fitter. 

We should remember, the term “diet” implies it is something temporary, we should make a lifestyle choice with our food and aim to stick with it.

But what about the quantity?

While the quality of food you eat is important, the quantity is equally important. This is more so if you’re trying to lose weight or to maintain the right Body Mass Index. There’s so much to talk about weight management as we have elsewhere. But we cannot overstate the fundamental basis for weight management, which is: 

CALORIES IN – CALORIES OUT = WEIGHT LOSS/GAIN

Read: How much food is enough for a meal?

Read: How to eat healthy: A foolproof diet cheat sheet

Looking at Your Relationship With Exercise

Exercise is something that we were all told that we need to do as much of as humanly possible in order to feel good. But there is also such a thing as too much exercise, depending on the individual’s fitness.

You can measure your markers for fitness in a number of ways, for example, testing your VO2 max. But the important thing for anybody who is looking to change their life through fitness is to listen to their body. 

It is not helpful in starting an exercise regime and hitting the gym five days a week from the outset, because this can set you up to fail. This is why many people give up on their new year’s resolutions so quickly. 

However, exercise is beneficial for the immune system, as long as it’s in the right dosage. This is why we need to talk about the minimum effective dose. 

The modern world talks about working smart rather than working hard. And as far as exercise is concerned, our physiology in terms of building strength and muscle involves giving the muscle group the appropriate stimulus, which sends a signal to the nervous system that says it needs to grow. 

As long as we give the muscles and nervous system the nutrients and rest necessary, you will bounce back stronger. This is why high-intensity training is a very popular approach, as it provides that intense stimulus, and as long as you rest your body effectively, you will build back stronger. 

Read: Home exercise for beginners

A Word on Supplements

With regards to health and fitness, there are many people that will tell you you need to take certain supplements in order to feel like a whole new you. The best medicine and supplements are there to supplement your lifestyle, and no more. 

Many people find that they are deficient in key minerals. While the key to health and fitness is about having the right balance of vitamins and minerals in your body, there has been only a couple of essential ones that help your health and fitness. Thankfully, these are two things you can buy over the counter in any store: Vitamin D, and Omega-3. 

Vitamin D has a profound impact on the immune system and has even been studied as a way to combat the coronavirus. Omega-3 has the ability to help recovery, as well as boost serotonin receptors in the body, therefore, acting almost like an antidepressant.

Supplements can help, but it’s important to remember that they are not the be-all and end-all.

For a complete supplements guide, see Diet Supplements: The Ultimate Guide

Problem Solving Strategies for Financial Success

Some people say that money doesn’t buy happiness. And they may be right, to a degree. But we can all agree that we would rather have a problem of too much financial success than too little. Right? 

Sources of Income

Sources of income include:

  • Employment – 9-5 jobs, self-employment, contractors, etc.
  • Investment – Interest from savings, 401Ks, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, etc.

My personal view is that investment is the best source of income. This is simply because unlike other sources where you have to work for money, in investment the money works for you. That’s regardless of whether you pay someone to work for you, or to manage your passive income. 

But you can also argue that to earn the investment money, most people have to work for it. This is a fair point, but it still doesn’t diminish the point that investment is the best source of income. It only means that working for money should only be used as a means to an end. 

To learn more about investment opportunities, see: When Opportunity knocks

Self-employment has to come in second. First, it gives you the potential to earn more. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it gives you the opportunity to do what you love. If you can make an unlimited income doing what you love, that’s happiness!

To learn more about self-employment, see: Self-employment Success Guide

But, let’s face it. The vast majority do not earn their living from investments – at least not to begin with. Additionally, not everyone has the wherewithal – the know-how, and the risk propensity – for self-employment. 

That means their main source of income is their 9-5 jobs. Although their earnings and freedom is in the hands of the employer, these jobs tend to offer some stability. Still, with the right approach, they can earn a comfortable living. 

For this vast majority of people, financial success boils down to four key factors: 

  • How long you work for. 
  • The rate at which you save. 
  • Knowing how much you want to spend in retirement. 
  • How long you may live. 

While you can control three out of the four variables, you need to bear in mind that the concept of financial planning can be very complicated. You have to balance all of the relevant information, in accordance with your life changes.

To learn how to get your dream job, see: The Career Climber

How Long You Work

For every year you work, you will earn one less year of spending on your savings. You will also gain a year of saving for your retirement and compounding retirement assets. These will all correlate to a better probability of financial success.

Giving your assets time to grow and compound will fund your later life, but you won’t have as long to enjoy them because you are working. 

Choosing When You Retire

For many people, the goal is to have a long and fruitful retirement. But the finances you think you need in retirement will vary, because you will need more in the early years than the later years, and you should factor your goals accordingly.

Many people may have to work longer than they planned but if they get a late start, or didn’t put enough money towards their pension as soon as they started working, they won’t be able to save the right amount right away.

But this is where you’ve got to start saving more and allowing it to compound, which will give your nest egg the opportunity to grow. 

Money = Happiness?

When you are looking at retirement, knowing how much you want to spend is crucial. And you must take into consideration not just the amount of money you need for retirement, but what will actually make you happy in retirement. 

This boils down to your current lifestyle choices. After retirement, it’s common for people to want to do more things, but many people are forced to spend less because they don’t have many options. This is why if you want to save for retirement, you’ve got to address what your ideal lifestyle actually is, now and in the future. 

Being someone who works to live rather than lives to work can feed into so many of our lifestyle choices. If we have friends that earn a lot of money, we can have that temptation to keep up with the Joneses. That means we believe that we need to work more in order to fund this lifestyle.

But financial success directly correlates with your lifestyle choices. You need to decide if you are happier with more things than less, and therefore, you will need to manifest this reality with the appropriate level of funds. 

As simplistic as this equation is, it asks a number of key things of you. You need to determine if what you are doing is going to give you the ideal finances to live the life you want, but also if you need to have so much to be happy. So many of us need money to be happy, but we don’t put a value on it. 

You Can’t Take it With You, So Should You Spend Everything You Have?

Some people think they need more money than less because this buys the finer things in life. If you want the finer things in life, and you are happier for it, this is absolutely fine.

But if you are working to pay off debt, because you were more than generous with your spending in your younger years, you are now paying the price, literally and figuratively. But this is where having a money-saving mindset, and knowledge of how to pay off your debt appropriately can help. 

Techniques like the debt snowball method can be invaluable, because it allows you to pay off your debt. But it also gives you the power over your debt because you are achieving your goals by paying off a certain amount.

The modern world is expensive, and this is why we feel we need to earn more so we can catch up with everybody else.

But it’s about bringing things closer to home and realizing that there are aspects of our lives that we can benefit from simplification. 

This boils down to certain practices that can help save you money, such as reducing your utility bills, batch cooking food, and learning to make things go further, rather than having to pay for everything fresh. It benefits to be resourceful in the modern world, not just because it’s helping to save the planet, but it’s helping us to save those precious pennies.

To learn more about personal finances, see: Empower Your Personal Finance

Problem Solving Strategies in Relationships

The number one secret to having long and successful relationships is to begin with the right relationships in the first place. For this to happen, you need to understand yourself and accept who you are as you present yourself to the world. It should come as no surprise that there is a link between self-esteem and the health of a relationship. 

If you do not value yourself, this is going to affect behaviors, which will have an impact on the type of connections you make with others. The Law of Attraction can spring to mind here. If we view ourselves in a positive light, we are going to attract people of a similar mindset to us. But it’s not about necessarily attracting the right people, however, we have to start with ourselves. 

You may want a certain type of person in your life, but you’re not going to have that person in your life if you do not view yourself in a certain way. This means you’ve got to start following a certain number of practices to make sure that you are valuing yourself: 

Incorporating Affirmations 

If you have low self-worth, this will be evident in the fact that you are constantly looking for validation and affirmation. If you think that the things you do are not good enough, and you obsess about what other people think, this is going to cause long-term damage to your relationships with others. 

You might be doing it with the best of intentions, but people may view your behavior as a way to smooth your ego. This is why sometimes we may view someone as arrogant or selfish, whereas, in fact, they are extremely socially anxious. It’s important to affirm who you are, and realize that you do not need to validate others. 

Learning to Emotionally Share

Some people feel they do not want to share their lives with others. However, as a foundation for any relationship, romantic or otherwise, it is important to remember that we have to open ourselves up to others. We can start this by doing simple things: 

Being a dependable friend. 

  • Offering gestures. 
  • Being there for someone. 

Many people feel that if they’ve been spurned or hurt by someone, they start to retreat into their shells and come to the conclusion that they just need to focus on themselves. As important as it is to focus on ourselves, there is a difference between self-care and being selfish. 

Think About Your Physical Demeanor

There is an amazing TED talk by Amy Cuddy on the power of body language. If you are someone who easily finds yourself recoiling, crossing your legs, or folding your arms when you speak to people, it can take a long time to unlearn these unhelpful behaviors. These behaviors send a clear, but subconscious signal that you do not want to be bothered. When you slouch, you subconsciously communicate that you are being submissive. 

If you’re being submissive to someone, this will send a signal that they can walk all over you. If you don’t respect yourself, nobody will respect you. When you let others disrespect you, this will then feed into your negative mindset. 

Cultivating Self-Awareness

Many people feel that they need to get by in life through denial. But when you start to look at who you are properly and identify your strengths and your weaknesses, you are giving yourself permission to understand the things that you may not necessarily like about yourself, but you either want to change or recognize the fact that you are unique. 

Throughout our lives, we are told that we need to conform or be left behind. Gaining self-awareness will give you the permission to appreciate yourself. It’s about realizing that if you cannot be yourself around others, you are letting people into your life that are only seeing a small aspect of you, or only the personality type you are presenting to the world. 

In order to love others, you must love yourself first, and this means accepting who you are and what you want to be. Because if we want to love other people, we have to learn what it is that they love about us. Only when we are at a place where we do love and respect ourselves, then we can start giving everybody else more reasons to love us.

To learn more about sustaining successful relationships, see: Relationships Maintenance

To learn more about sexual intimacy, see: Intimate Sexual Issues

Problem Solving Strategies for Kids and Parenting

Right parenting is beneficial for both parents and kids. Studies show that your life is shaped by what happens to you by the time you’re 8 years old. Since there’s no parenting school, oftentimes, parents find themselves raising their kids through trial and error methods. But this doesn’t have to be the case. 

Because raising children is the hardest, yet most fulfilling job in the world, we can place a lot of pressure on ourselves to get the job right the first time. From helping your child to sleep, to disciplining them, and understanding their friendships, to teaching sexuality, your work is cut out. And if you have more than one child, there are other complexities to deal with such as managing sibling rivalry. 

In order to feel that we are doing right by our children, we have to realize one simple thing: the impact that we have on our children. When we become aware of the fact that we are responsible for them, not just physically but emotionally, it can be a job that becomes overwhelming. 

But we also have to remember that parenting our children is about letting them be their own person. How can we do this? 

Communication Is Everything

Communication is one of the biggest bridges to any relationship. And it’s easy for parents just to say “no” to a child and not explain why. “Because I said so” should never be something that comes out of our mouths.

If we don’t take time to explain, our children aren’t going to understand our motives, our values, and if what we say has any basis in the real world.

Communicating with your children is about reasoning with them, allowing them to understand both sides of the story. This helps you make sure that you are able to set your expectations in a clear manner.

When you start to communicate properly with your children, it isn’t just a way for you to explain why they need to go to their room. It’s about ensuring that both of you can learn how to put across your feelings. 

You need to treat your child as another person, not someone lesser than you. This is a very common mistake parents make because they may subscribe to the ideology that children should be seen and not heard.

But it’s about actually having a conversation with your child, being open to the suggestions, offering choices, but also, being sure to include the consequences of actions. 

Understanding Their Self-Esteem 

It is the first 8 years of our child’s life that have the biggest impacts on them, and how they will view the world for the rest of their lives. As soon as our children are born, they start to develop their sense of self when they begin to see themselves through their parents’ eyes. 

This means you have to focus on every aspect of your personality, including your body language, tone of voice, etc, because this will affect their self-esteem more than anything else. 

We have to be aware that we have the potential to cause damage to our children’s self-esteem when we make loaded comments, or we disparage something they are proud of. And we think we can do this for the fact that our parents did it to us. 

Sometimes, we can argue that our father spoke to us in a certain way, and “it didn’t do me any harm.” The reality is that if you don’t want to repeat the parenting patterns your parents made, you’ve got to be conscious of the fact that words can be weapons. Choose them carefully, but be compassionate. 

Children Make Mistakes, and That Is Okay

The modern world can stress us out. We have a lot to do. And this means that if our child makes a mess at the wrong moment we can easily chastise them. But it’s so important to instill the fact that everybody makes mistakes. 

We all need to remember that to make mistakes in life is to be human. And if we set a precedent that our children cannot make mistakes at all, this is going to cause them to become a perfectionist. This is unviable, unattainable, and can cause a lot of emotional damage. 

However, this is where we can give our children the appropriate toolboxes to deal with their problems. Everything we have discussed so far is about providing a thorough foundation to being the best version of ourselves. And our child is, in essence, the culmination of all our hard work. 

We have to remember that our children will make mistakes, as will we. And this means that we’ve got to be the role model that we think we should be for them, but also remember that we need to give ourselves a pass! 

We have limits as parents, and we are not perfect parents. But we have to remember that the one thing we can offer them, regardless of how we feel on a specific day, is that we can show them unconditional love. 

If we blame, criticize, or find fault, we will undermine their self-esteem, we need to show them that our love is there, no matter what. 

As you can see, if you want to solve any problem in your life, you first need to understand the underlying mechanics of the problem. This means that sometimes we need to look at it from another perspective, or have no inherent understanding of how our body works. If we have the toolbox in place, this will give us invaluable abilities to tackle anything in our lives.

Further reading:

Five ways to become a better person

Be a better you: A guide to self-development and success oriented mindset

Self Discovery: Find your true self and achieve success

better relationships financial success kids and parenting personal development success mindset
Kamakia Mwangi
Kamakia Mwangi

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