Some Problems Can't Be Solved (Knowing This Simple Strategy Will Help)

I remember when I thought that solving problems was the key to success.

You might also love to solve-problems.  You love fixing things and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you were able to help find the solution.

When it comes to leadership (and human beings), problem-solving might do more harm than good.  

You see yourself as having "bad habits" or things about you that "needs improving".  You feel like there are things that you want to "fix".  

The same goes for those you lead (I know it has for me). 

You look out into your team and you see people not living up to your expectation.  You might often be thinking, "how do I get them to take more ownership, or how do I get them to work with more urgency"?

That's just it, you are approaching yourself and your team as a problem to be solved.  

Your "problems" sometimes can't be solved, but you can find the opportunity to create more of what you want in every situation.  Here's how...

In this video, you'll learn a new perspective on problem-solving and why it's blocking you from achieving greater potentials and possibilities with yourself and your team.

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Some Problems Can't Be Solved

Transcript - June 4, 2020

Some problems just can't be solved and this simple strategy will help.

It makes sense that we focus so much on problems.

As leaders, we want to solve problems. We see problems all around us and we respond to or react to those problems.

In a previous video, we established that you can solve all the problems, but still not be any closer to your goal or your vision.

You can solve all the problems, but still not be any closer to your goal or your vision.

Let me introduce myself really quick. My name is Zach, I'm a performance and leadership coach.

I work with a lot of entrepreneurial leaders. Leaders who desire to build a business, a side hustle, build teams, or build a career that has an impact that serves them and those around them.

And I help those leaders get more of what they want in their businesses, their teams, and their lives.

Today, we're talking about how some problems just can't be solved.

It makes sense though, that we have this focus on problems. They're all around us. If you manage a team or work in a business, they happen on a daily basis. It's so easy to feel like you have to do something with the problems and you have to respond or react to them.

I want to just point something out and that is not all problems can be solved.

In fact, if you ever find yourself asking questions like, "Why does this keep happening?" Or maybe "How do I get him or her to stop doing that or do it better?"

"Why can't I just stay motivated?" -- maybe that's the challenge you don't always feel like working and you're wondering "what do I do with that?"

Maybe it's, "why can't I have more time for myself?" Maybe there's this overall feeling of busyness.

You repeatedly ask yourself, "when will it happen?"

When will I get to the next level, when will my business grow to that next level?

These are the problems that really can't be solved directly.

I want to share with you a quote from a German psychologist, Carl Jung, one of the fathers of modern-day psychology.

He says that "all the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown," this outgrowth proved on further in his investigations "...to require a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appeared on the patient's horizon."

Carl Jung went on to say, "when the patients were to grow to new levels of consciousness, there was this higher and wider interest that appeared on the patient's horizon."

So I interpret that to mean they got a bigger vision, they saw a bigger picture.

..."And through this broadening of his or her outlook, this unsolvable problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms, but faded when confronted with a new and stronger life urge."

I think this is an important lesson, there are problems that can't be solved, but they can be outgrown.

Some problems can't be solved, but they can be outgrown.

And when we are able to really understand why things are the way they are. Our level of awareness puts us more at choice for how we want to change those things.

What choices do you want to make differently? Who do you want to be so to change the outcome?

And if there was one powerful thing that I do with clients in coaching is we work on "that".

We work on that very fundamental question: "Why are things the way they are?"

Because we are all contributing to the very things we say we don't want, we just are...we always have some sort of contribution in whatever is happening.

It isn't until we take 100% ownership of that, and grow, that things begin to change.

When I'm working with clients, oftentimes the very fundamental question we ask is, "why are things the way they are?"

Then we bookend that with, "what do you want to create?"

"What's the result you desire to create most?" When you can get clarity on both ends of the spectrum here--getting very deeply in tune with "Why are things the way they are?"

...What is it about me, that continues to respond to situations in this way?

If I could change some of the beliefs, interpretations, and assumptions that I have about those situations, all of a sudden, I find out that I can show up differently!

I can show up more powerfully and more confidently. I can be a more powerful leader.

When that starts to happen, along with a very clear, inspiring vision of what it is that the leader desires to create, they all of a sudden can get immense traction towards creating it.

There's this tension created between where they are and ultimately where they want to be. And they move into it.

What I'm here to tell you today is when we solve problems that may or may not get us what we ultimately want.

Oftentimes, there are so many problems that we're trying to solve logically that really can't be solved at all but can only be outgrown.

It's time to be really honest.  Ask yourself, "how am I contributing to this thing that I say that I don't want?"

What is it about me that's causing this to continue to happen?

The fundamental question we then need to answer is, "well, who would I have to be?" "Who do I want to be", better said, "Who do I desire to be in this moment, as a leader?"

"Who do I desire to be as a leader?"

I want you to remember that we don't DO leadership, but we are leaders.

We don't DO Leadership, but we are leaders.

Leadership has everything to do with who you are in your BEING and isn't about what you do.

So take off the leadership hat, stop trying to solve problems, and start looking inwardly at who you desire to be to create the results that you deeply desire to create.

I hope you enjoyed this. I would love to hear from you.

Click below, subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube. If you're watching this on LinkedIn, I would love to chat with you. So just drop me a note, drop me a comment, and I'll see you in the next video.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai