In my private practice and my corporate work, I’ve often seen people struggling with a ‘problem’ they thought they couldn’t resolve. I’ve been there too, well, in the past that is. I now know that whatever the problem, there is always something you can do to feel less helpless, and often, if you think about it differently, you can even open the doors to finding a solution.

Knowing that your problem has a solution can be reassuring, but what about if the solution seems out of reach?

When you are facing a problem or challenge in life it’s easy to feel isolated and alone. This often means that you will struggle longer than necessary, believing that you have to deal with the issue, without help.

It’s a bold claim to say that any problem has a solution

But remember, we people have been around a long time. There is nothing new, and there are always more possibilities than the mind can conjure.

Someone somewhere has already found a way of dealing with the problem you face. If the problem isn’t actually solvable, they’ll have found a way of making it more bearable, a way to live with it.

There have never been more possibilities for discovery, so make it your mission to reach out and learn.

When a Problem Has No Solution

One way to think about this is that if a problem seems intractable then you are probably thinking about it the wrong way. Maybe ‘wrong’ is the wrong word, but that’s how the mind often works – by placing things in opposition to each other in an either/or way (such as when we judge things to be right/wrong).

What I should say is that is that there are different ways of thinking about a problem, and they are not all equally valid. Taking a solution focused perspective (which has it that the attempted solution is part of the problem), can allow you to step back and look at the situation from new perspectives.

Think of it this way; if the questions you ask determine the type of response you get, then when you are stuck with something it can help to change your questions.