How To Use Emotion & Solve Problem Effectively

Summary – Use emotionThe following story is one of the many interesting stories published on the net.

The Story

Once there was a school with quite a unique problem. The girls at the school were beginning to use lipstick and like everyone else who just started a thing, there were lipstick prints all over the mirrors of the school bathroom.
This however was a problem to the janitor since he would have to clean the mirror every single day.
One day he reported the problem to the school principal and she immediately called up all the students to the bathroom (of course in groups). She then explained that the lip prints were causing problem to the janitor who worked very hard to keep the school clean.
She even asked the janitor to demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the lips prints. The janitor took out a long handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.
Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
/end story
As you can probably notice, the solution is so simple and effective, it is amazing why we can’t come up with it in the first place.
So how can we come up with an amazingly effective solution to other daily problems in our life?
I don’t know about you, but when dealing with people, I personally believe that any solution can be very effective provided we can tap into the people’s emotion.
Let’s look at the story for example. The janitor use the toilet water to induce the feeling of disgust in the students and in the end, he manage to solve the problem completely.

How I Apply It In Real Life

I’m having the same problem here in my mill. A lot of my workers prefer not to wear the safety helmet during working. Of course they will be wearing them when I’m around but I really don’t think they are wearing it during night time etc.
So what I did is to gather a lot of pictures from the internet on accidents that happened to people who did not wear their safety helmet. There are pictures of dead people with their head slice into two, iron rod penetrating the skull etc. Seriously, they are the kind of pictures you wouldn’t want to show your children or you will have to pay for their therapy for years.
Immediately after I show these pictures, almost everyone wear the safety helmet (day and night). I’m really hoping that the pictures can stir the fear inside the workers. It worked! Problem solved!
- I wonder -

11 Missing Steps Of Problem Solving You Probably Don’t Know

Summary – 11 simple steps to solve problem eficiently
What’s life without some challenge right? The truth is we are bound to encounter some bump in our life, some problem to be solved. We are doing it all the time, most of the time problem solving will come naturally just like breathing air. We just see a problem, we know exactly how to approach it.
Allow me to add some additional steps on how to solve problem. A few steps that I think equally important but often forgotten..
1) Smile. The first thing you need to do is to smile. Seriously when you smile at a problem. Any problem will look easier to solve. Trust me on this.
2) Is it really a problem? Ask this question first before you attempt to solve it. Sometimes it may look like a problem, giving you stress like a problem but it really is not. An example is when you want to get a slimmer body. Before you rush to buy a diet pills, check your BMI first. You may end up knowing that you are actually at your most optimum weight.
3) Define your problem, then redefine it one more time. Most of the time the problem is not that you have an insomnia, it’s the sound of that drop of water in your bathroom.
4) Consider Do-Nothing approach. Some problem is better left unsolved. An example would be going to work when it’s raining heavily, (you have no car or a rain coat).. the best approach is just to do nothing and wait for the rain to stop.
5) Occum’s Razor Principle. The principle basically says that when all the condition remain constant, the simplest solution tend to be the best ones. Simply explained, most of the time, the solution to a problem is actually simple. You want to be rich, more saving less spending.
6) Google. By google, I’m not saying we should search online. It can very well be offline. Human has been around for thousands of years. I truly believe any problem in the world at any moment has happened before and thus the solution is already there. We just need to know how to look for it.
7) One step backward. Usually a problem will comes with stress. The longer it takes to solve a problem, the more stressful it will become. Whenever you are feeling more stressful with the problem, stop right there. Take one step backward. Leave your thinking cap behind.
Yes, some mind work more efficiently with pressure, some doesn’t. If you are in the latter group, taking that calming step backward (literally) and observe the problem in a different way. Just like a person hiding behind a rock, When you move he move. There’s no way you can see him unless you look from a helicopter.
8] Sleep on it. For those who might not be familiar, when we sleep, our subconscious mind will work on all our problems. And that is why, problems usually don’t feel that critical in the early morning as compared to last night. The idea is to present the problem in our head. Not to think the solution of the problem before you sleep. This will only cause you to have difficulty sleeping.
9) Cryogenic the problem. In sci-fi movie, people often undergo cryogenic procedure when they have incurable disease, and they are hoping that in the future, the medical technology will be so advance that that disease will be curable. If that problem is not urgent, why not keep it unsolved for a while. Who knows, in time we will be better equipped to solve it.
10) Some problems are not meant to be solved. Do you know that there are millions of black hole in the galaxy. If one comes as close to earth as the sun from the earth, we will be sucked into the black hole. You can worry all your life about this, but why? We can’t solve this problem, so just leave it be.
11) Solution equals bigger problem? So you have found a solution. Now think again, what will this solution affect. If the solution will pose another greater problem, isn’t it better to just live with the smaller problem instead?
/end list
- I wonder -
Any other ideas on how to solve problems?

The 3 Words That Will Solve 99% of Your Problems

Problems as many of you may have realized, are always complicated. There will usually be a lot of factors to solve it and this can be very overwhelming sometimes. Believe it or not, most problems can really be solved by just going Back To Basic (BTB).

Example of a Problem

Let me give you a complex problem as an example. Let say David had just been promoted to a managerial level. With the promotion, the company (like what most companies do) had squeeze everything from the poor guy. He was put in charge of hundreds of project. And he was pushed for result almost hourly. In short, he was under tremendous pressure and stress and it is starting to affect his health and his relationship with his family.

The Solution

There are many ways to approach a problem. This had been discussed a lot of time and if you are interested, I list here a few articles previously written on the subject.

• 11 Missing Steps of Problem Solving You Probably Don’t Know
• How To Use Emotion & Solve Problem Effectively

However, to solve the problem using the “Back To Basic” approach, you must really sit down and analyze the basic elements of your problem. In our example, the problem is definitely the stress. David’s health condition and the relationship will not be affected if there is no stress to begin with.
Then David will see that the stress actually originate from his superior. Both the hundreds of projects and the company are not causing him stress. It is really the superior that giving him pressure.
Bear with me as I elaborate the steps of the “Back To Basic” method.
Now that we know the superior is the one causing him stress, the next step that David should do is to know what the superior actually want from him. What was it that if given, the superior will stop all the pressure. The answer is simple – Result.
Of course, the next logical step is really to determine how to get the result but let’s just stop right here.

Why Do We Need BTB

The second time I read this article, I’ve had that Duh feeling. Of course good result will eliminate the stress. Anyone can identify this immediately.
But believe me, there are so many people out there actually solve the problem wrongly. They start by solving the relationship problem first. While the stress is still accumulating, they are pinpointing the problem to the company, and may approach the problem by quitting the company. This is also the wrong solution to the problem as David will continue to receive stress from other company he will be employed.

Is BTB Just A Fancy Name For Problem Definition?

“Redefining problem” step identifies problem. “Back to Basic” step is actually providing the answer. Let me list down 5 of the most common problems to elaborate the difference.
1) How a company can make more profit?
BTB solution – More sales and less expenditure.
2) How to have an effective time management?
BTB solution – stop wasting time.
3) How to be loved by everyone?
BTB solution – Be nice.
4) How to lose 20kg?
BTB solution – Exercise and eat right.
5) How to wake up early?
BTB solution – sleep early and alarm clock.
- I wonder -
Any other question and the BTB solution that comes to your mind? Please share.
——– Personal Note ———
Actually I have quite the same problem with David. For those who may notice, it has been awhile since my last update. For your information, I was promoted and transfered to Sabah one year ago. For the past one year, I had to put more focus on my career to catch up and deliver result. As a result, the blog had taken the damage. I have no intention of quitting that I can assure you.
To all my friends still visiting, thank you. You are really the reason I’m still here.

9 Tips in Life that Lead to Happiness

Are you truly happy? Do you even know what it means to be happy and what it takes to achieve happiness? These are important questions for anyone who is seeking happiness to ask themselves. I live my life to maintain my own happiness while trying my best to not cause unhappiness to anyone else. If you want to be happy you need to understand that you can be happy and that you should be happy. Many people make the mistake of believing that they don’t deserve happiness and accept their unhappy state as their destiny. The truth of the matter is that happiness, like anything else in life, needs to be nurtured. The following are a few tips that I follow to create happiness in my life.

1. Understand what it is that will make you happy. Everyone has unique requirements for attaining happiness and what makes one person happy may be very different from what makes someone else happy. Revel in your individuality and do not worry about whether or not your desires are comparable to those of your peers
2. Make a plan for attaining goals that you believe will make you happy. Your mood will very likely increase as your pursue your goal because you will feel better about yourself for going after something you value.
3. Surround yourself with happy people. It is easy to begin to think negatively when you are surrounded by people who think that way. Conversely, if you are around people who are happy their emotional state will be infectious.
4. When something goes wrong try to figure out a solution instead of wallowing in self pity. Truly happy people don’t allow set backs to affect their mood because they know that with a little thought they can turn the circumstances back to their favor.
5. Spend a few minutes each day thinking about the things that make you happy. These few minutes will give you the opportunity to focus on the positive things in your life and will lead you to continued happiness.
6. It’s also important to take some time each day to do something nice for yourself. Whether you treat yourself to lunch, take a long, relaxing bath or simply spend a few extra minutes on your appearance you will be subconsciously putting yourself in a better mood.
7. Finding the humor in situations can also lead to happiness. While there are times that require you to be serious, when it is appropriate, find a way to make light of a situation that would otherwise make you unhappy.
8. Maintaining your health is another way to achieve happiness. Being overweight or not eating nutritious foods can have a negative effect on your mood. Additionally, exercise has been known to release endorphins that give you a feeling of happiness.
9. Finally, it is important to understand that you deserve happiness. Those who believe that they are not worthy of happiness may subconsciously sabotage their efforts to achieve happiness. If necessary, tell yourself each day that you deserve to be happy and remind yourself what steps you will take to achieve the happiness you desire.

Happiness is hard to define but most people are aware of whether they are happy or not. Many people believe that happiness is a form of luck and that some people are destined to be happy while others are destined to be unhappy. I try to incorporate the tips above into my life and have had great success in achieving happiness. The tips in this article are small but meaningful steps that you can take each day to lead you to true happiness.

How to Discover Your Life Purpose in About 20 Minutes

How do you discover your real purpose in life? I’m not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.
Perhaps you’re a rather nihilistic person who doesn’t believe you have a purpose and that life has no meaning. Doesn’t matter. Not believing that you have a purpose won’t prevent you from discovering it, just as a lack of belief in gravity won’t prevent you from tripping. All that a lack of belief will do is make it take longer, so if you’re one of those people, just change the number 20 in the title of this blog entry to 40 (or 60 if you’re really stubborn). Most likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably won’t believe what I’m saying anyway, but even so, what’s the risk of investing an hour just in case?
Here’s a story about Bruce Lee which sets the stage for this little exercise. A master martial artist asked Bruce to teach him everything Bruce knew about martial arts. Bruce held up two cups, both filled with liquid. “The first cup,” said Bruce, “represents all of your knowledge about martial arts. The second cup represents all of my knowledge about martial arts. If you want to fill your cup with my knowledge, you must first empty your cup of your knowledge.”
If you want to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no purpose at all).
So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.
Here’s what to do:

1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a counselor or an engineer or a bodybuilder. To some people this exercise will make perfect sense. To others it will seem utterly stupid. Usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life is. The false answers will come from your mind and your memories. But when the true answer finally arrives, it will feel like it’s coming to you from a different source entirely.
For those who are very entrenched in low-awareness living, it will take a lot longer to get all the false answers out, possibly more than an hour. But if you persist, after 100 or 200 or maybe even 500 answers, you’ll be struck by the answer that causes you to surge with emotion, the answer that breaks you. If you’ve never done this, it may very well sound silly to you. So let it seem silly, and do it anyway.
As you go through this process, some of your answers will be very similar. You may even re-list previous answers. Then you might head off on a new tangent and generate 10-20 more answers along some other theme. And that’s fine. You can list whatever answer pops into your head as long as you just keep writing.
At some point during the process (typically after about 50-100 answers), you may want to quit and just can’t see it converging. You may feel the urge to get up and make an excuse to do something else. That’s normal. Push past this resistance, and just keep writing. The feeling of resistance will eventually pass.
You may also discover a few answers that seem to give you a mini-surge of emotion, but they don’t quite make you cry — they’re just a bit off. Highlight those answers as you go along, so you can come back to them to generate new permutations. Each reflects a piece of your purpose, but individually they aren’t complete. When you start getting these kinds of answers, it just means you’re getting warm. Keep going.
It’s important to do this alone and with no interruptions. If you’re a nihilist, then feel free to start with the answer, “I don’t have a purpose,” or “Life is meaningless,” and take it from there. If you keep at it, you’ll still eventually converge.
When I did this exercise, it took me about 25 minutes, and I reached my final answer at step 106. Partial pieces of the answer (mini-surges) appeared at steps 17, 39, and 53, and then the bulk of it fell into place and was refined through steps 100-106. I felt the feeling of resistance (wanting to get up and do something else, expecting the process to fail, feeling very impatient and even irritated) around steps 55-60. At step 80 I took a 2-minute break to close my eyes, relax, clear my mind, and to focus on the intention for the answer to come to me — this was helpful as the answers I received after this break began to have greater clarity.
Here was my final answer: to live consciously and courageously, to resonate with love and compassion, to awaken the great spirits within others, and to leave this world in peace.
When you find your own unique answer to the question of why you’re here, you will feel it resonate with you deeply. The words will seem to have a special energy to you, and you will feel that energy whenever you read them.
Discovering your purpose is the easy part. The hard part is keeping it with you on a daily basis and working on yourself to the point where you become that purpose.
If you’re inclined to ask why this little process works, just put that question aside until after you’ve successfully completed it. Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably have your own answer to why it works. Most likely if you ask 10 different people why this works (people who’ve successfully completed it), you’ll get 10 different answers, all filtered through their individual belief systems, and each will contain its own reflection of truth.
Obviously, this process won’t work if you quit before convergence. I’d guesstimate that 80-90% of people should achieve convergence in less than an hour. If you’re really entrenched in your beliefs and resistant to the process, maybe it will take you 5 sessions and 3 hours, but I suspect that such people will simply quit early (like within the first 15 minutes) or won’t even attempt it at all. But if you’re drawn to read this blog (and haven’t been inclined to ban it from your life yet), then it’s doubtful you fall into this group.
Give it a shot! At the very least, you’ll learn one of two things: your true purpose in life -or- that you should unsubscribe from this blog.