If you assume there is a way to deal with a problem, you’ll probably find one.
1. Be positive
You’ve seen the bumper sticker. Stuff happens. Minor frustrations are the norm, not the exception.
Trying to pin blame on someone is usually a waste of time.
Negativity clouds the mind. Got it? Good.
Because avoiding the victim trap is an essential component of the fixer philosophy.
If you drop and break a china cup, you can think “unfair,” or you can marvel at how long you and that cup defied gravity, a force powerful enough to sling planets through the solar system.
Then you can zero in on a solution.
You must get over that initial emotional response to a problem.
Only then you will start to think of solutions.
If you assume there is a way to deal with a problem, you’ll probably find one. Think self-fulfilling prophecy.
2. Have a sense of humour
If looking on the bright side is an indispensable fix-it trait, sometimes it’s also necessary to get downright silly, especially when things are so bad (a backed-up toilet is flooding the hall, a downpour drenches your business suit before an important meeting) that the alternative is tears.
If negativity clouds the mind, acute stress shackles bright ideas. Break those chains with a little laughter.
3. Think fast, but take your time
Sounds like some impossible Zen paradox, right? Like “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
Well, there’s an important distinction between thinking fast and acting fast without thinking. The latter is called panicking, and panic has no place in the Five Minute Philosophy.
Say your son loses a tooth in a backyard ball game.
He’s screaming, his friends are screaming, blood is everywhere.
What do you do? Rush him to the hospital? Yes, but . . . thinking fast, you search for the tooth and find it lying in the grass. Sure enough, the dislodged tooth might be reimplanted.
Rinse the tooth with water (touching the crown only) and slip it back into the socket (or into a cup of cold milk) to prevent it from drying out.
Now you can drive your son – carefully – to the emergency room.
A well thought-out fix is more effective than a botched attempt at a speedy fix.