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• A matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome. Oxford Dictionary
• A situation, person, or thing that needs attention and needs to be dealt with or solved. Cambridge Dictionary
• Something that is difficult to deal with: something that is a source of trouble, worry, etc. Merriam Webster
• A personal matter that causes one difficulty or needs to be dealt with. American Heritage Dictionary
• Decision making,  Obstacles,  Systems thinking,  Worry,  Anxiety,  Adversity,  Challenge

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Accept that problems are a natural part of full life

• The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.  Theodore Rubin
• The man who has no more problems to solve, is out of the game. Elbert Hubbard
• Unrest of the spirit is a mark of life; one problem after another presents itself and in the solving of them we can find our greatest pleasure. Karl Menninger
• Sometimes life knocks you on your ass… get up, get up, get up!!! Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them. Steve Maraboli
• Life is problems. Living is solving problems. Raymond E. Feist
• Don’t hope for a life without problems. An easy life results in a judgemental and lazy mind. Kyong Ho
• In times like these it is good to remember that there have always been times like these. Paul Harvey
• Life is a crisis – so what! Malcolm Bradbury

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See your problem as a gift and an opportunity…

• Problems are just life’s way of getting the best out of us. Tom Morris
• There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts. Richard Bach
• I also know that every problem is an opportunity in disguise, and this alertness to opportunities allows me to take this moment and transform it into a greater benefit. Deepak Chopra
• All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it to a better situation or thing. Deepak Chopra
• Problems are opportunities in work clothes. Henry J Kaiser
• The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution.
• Every problem has a gift for you in its hands. Richard Bach
• Welcome those big, sticky, complicated problems. In them are your most powerful opportunities. Ralph Marston
• We have a problem. ‘Congratulations.’ But it’s a tough problem. ‘Then double congratulations.’ Clement Stone
• The greatest problem you have is your greatest opportunity. Michael Wickett
• Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them. Hugh Miller
• In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Rainer Maria Rilke
• Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds. Norman Vincent Peale
• Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things. Henry Ward Beecher
• Instead of using the word “problem”, try substituting the word “opportunity.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• Opportunity,  Life is a gift

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… especially an opportunity to grow

• Problems are God’s resistance to create spiritual muscles. Tony Robbins
• God doesn’t want us merely to ‘get through’ our problems. He wants us to ‘grow through them.’ Gary Oliver
• Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom. It is because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.  Scott Peck
• Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong. Norman Vincent Peale
• Opportunity,  Growth

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Problems are often a sign that you’re making progress

• Understand that most problems are a good sign. Problems indicate that progress is being made, wheels are turning, you are moving toward your goals. Beware when you have no problems. Then you’ve really got a problem… Problems are like landmarks of progress. Scott Alexander
• The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year. John Foster Dulles
• Problems are the price of progress. Don’t bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me. Charles Franklin Kettering
• Progress

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Therefore, welcome your problems

• Welcome problems with arms open. Embrace them because this can well be some of the finest parts of living.  Many older people look back on the years they spent wondering how they would meet the expenses of raising a family, coping with the problems, the illnesses– they look back now and think, “Those were the most developmental, the most rewarding, the most wonderful years of my life.  If I could only have recognized it then.”   What they’re saying, in effect, is that they should have welcomed problems.  Encountering a steady stream of problems day after day made their lives warm and meaningful.  It gave them confidence.  It helped insure that their later years would be years of serenity.   Joe D. Batten and Leonard C. Hudson
• If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it. Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Mentally convert your problems into challenges

• The negative way to look at a problem is to think of it as a problem. Search it out, isolate it as a problem, then in your mind convert it to a challenge, determine the steps that you will need to surmount it just as the pole vaulter needs to first determine steps and then work at it.  Only in this way do you develop the skill, the coordination, the mind, the muscle and the confidence to really get it done.   Joe D. Batten and Leonard C. Hudson
• Challenge

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The greatest triumph of all is to outgrow your problems

• Poor people will do almost anything to avoid problems. They see a challenge and they run…the secret to success, my friends, is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than your problems. Harv Eker
• If you have a big problem in your life, all that means is that you are being a small person! Grow and your problems will shrink. T. Harv Eker
• All the greatest and most important problems in life are fundamentally insoluble … They can never be solved, but only outgrown. This “outgrowing” proves on further investigation to require a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appeared on the horizon and through this broadening of outlook, the insoluble lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms but faded when confronted with a new and stronger life urge. Carl Jung
• The art of living lies less in eliminating troubles than in growing with them. Bernard Baruch
• There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them. Phyllis Bottome
• Triumph,  Victory

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Face and solve problems, don’t hide from them

• Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin
• You won’t find a solution by saying there is no problem. William Rotsler
• The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. Alan Saporta
• Peace of mind is attained not by ignoring problems, but by solving them. Raymond Hull
• It’s not a problem that we have a problem. It’s a problem if we don’t deal with the problem. Mary Kay Utech
• You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there. Edwin Louis Cole
• Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them. Henry Ford
• The best way out is always through. Helen Keller
• Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. M. Scott Peck
• Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough. Earl Wilson
• Much of the stress you experience may be created by recognizing a problem and doing nothing about it. Wess Roberts
• Running away from any problem only increases the distance from the solution.
• Deal with difficulties while they are still easy. Handle the great while it is still small. Lao Tzu
• It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly. Isaac Asimov
• If you can stare hard at your problems, they almost always shrink or disappear, because you almost always find a better way of dealing with them than if you don’t face them head on. The more difficult the problem, the more important it is that you stare at it and deal with it. After seeing how effectively facing reality – especially your problems, mistakes and weaknesses – works, you will become comfortable with it and won’t want to operate any other way. Ray Dalio
• Face challenges head-on

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Take responsibility for your problems

• The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny. Albert Ellis
• Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment and learn again to exercise his will—his personal responsibility. Albert Schweitzer
• Responsibility is the most powerful internal motivator for problem solving. When you remove it, all that remains is the lesser drive of self- preservation. If necessity is the mother of invention, then responsibility is its father. Mark A. Crouch
• Responsibility

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Believe that your problem can be solved

• Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will. Norman Vincent Peale
• This problem, too, will look simple after it is solved. Charles Franklin Kettering
• Whatever your problem, no matter how difficult, you can release spiritual power sufficient to solve your problem. The secret is– pray and believe. Norman Vincent Peale
• To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not. Grenville Kleiser
• Believing there is a solution paves the way to a solution. David Schwartz
• The future will present insurmountable problems- only when we consider them insurmountable. Thomas S. Monson
• Never underestimate your problem or your ability to deal with it. Robert H. Schuller
• A possibility thinker notices a problem just long enough to get excited about the solution. Alan Cohen
• I’m not afraid of problem-solving. There is always a way. Hanneli Mustaparta
• Self-belief,  Belief

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Approach problems in a constructive, positive way…

• How you think about a problem is more important than the problem itself. So always think positively. Norman Vincent Peale
• Positivity

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… especially by focusing on the solution

• A possibility thinker notices a problem just long enough to get excited about the solution. Alan Cohen
• Don’t find fault…find a remedy. Henry Ford
• Focus on remedies, not faults. Jack Nicklaus
• Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions. Tony Robbins
• If you have some form of problem then rather than focusing on that problem and giving energy to that situation, instead shift you focus to a positive solution. Sompong Yusootorn
• Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer. Denis Waitley
• Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Stephen Covey
• If I had a dollar for every time someone came to me with not only a problem but also a possible solution to that problem, I’d have six dollars. Brian Vaszily
• Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems. Anthony J. D’Angelo
• Victims recite problems, leaders provide solutions. Robin S. Sharma
• Every problem contains the seed of its own solution. Norman Vincent Peale
• What we’re saying today is that you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem. Eldridge Cleaver
• Don’t fight your problem. Know that there is a solution. Joseph Murphy
• Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. Brian Tracy
• Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I’ve always believed that if you took one tenth of the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you’d be surprised by how well things can work out. Randy Pausch
• …an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable. Robert Anton Wilson
• You will only be remembered for two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create. Mike Murdock
• There’s no use talking about the problem unless you talk about the solution. Betty Williams
• If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered. Stanley Kubrick
• When you are looking for a solution, you are feeling positive emotion–but when you are looking at a problem, you are feeling negative emotion. Abraham/Hicks
• The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it’s silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable). Ray Dalio
• Focus

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It never pays to worry about your problems because worry is a waste of energy

• If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever. The Dalai Lama
• There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem. Harold Stephens
• Worry is never useful. When we find ourselves worrying, we should either act and not worry, or decide not to act and not worry. Richard Koch
• Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you. Oprah Winfrey
• So, I banish about 90 per cent of my worries by taking these four steps: (1) Writing down precisely what I am worried about. (2) Writing down what I can do about it. (3) Deciding what to do. (4) Starting immediately to carry out that decision. Dale Carnegie
• No amount of worrying can wipe off your problems. Worrying can only bring more pains to the injury. The sooner that you occupy your mind with positive solutions, the sooner your problem becomes a forgotten past. Edmond Mbiaka
• Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. Theodore N. Vail
• Worry

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Put your problem into perspective

• If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire-then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Robert Fulghum
• Ask yourself this question: Will this matter a year from now? Richard Carlson
• When you find yourself stressed, ask yourself one question: Will this matter in five years from now? If yes, then do something about the situation. If no, then let it go. Catherine Pulsifer
• If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. Joseph Cossman
• Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff. Robert Eliot
• Let’s not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember “Life is too short to be little.” Dale Carnegie
• Few things matter much; most things do not matter at all. Bishop Leadbeater
• Problems only exist in the human mind. Anthony de Mello
• I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it. Frank A. Clark
• The greatest cause of ulcers is mountain-climbing over molehills. Maxwell Maltz
• Is it something that will matter in 5 years? Or even in 5 weeks? Life becomes so less stressful when you stop making mountain out of molehills. Henrik Edberg
• Don’t confuse mere inconveniences with real problems. Jackson Brown Jr.
• If things go wrong, don’t go with them. Roger Babson
• Perspective

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Sometimes the way you see the problem is the problem

• Sometimes the situation is only a problem because it is looked at in a certain way. Looked at in another way, the right course of action may be so obvious that the problem no longer exists. Edward de Bono
• The way we see the problem is the problem. Stephen Covey
• If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Wayne Dyer
• As you inquire into issues and turn judgments around, you come to see that every perceived problem appearing ‘out there’ is really nothing more than a misperception within your own thinking.  Byron Katie

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Sometimes solving a problem requires a simple shift in attitude

• Your problem isn’t the problem, it’s your attitude about the problem. Ann Brashares
• So many people fail to eliminate their problems because they attempt to solve them with the same mental attitude that created their problems in the first place. Negative thinking never gives birth to positive solutions and results. Edmond Mbiaka
• There can only be one solution to any problem: a change in attitude and in consciousness. Gregg Braden
• Look at the problems in your life. Ask yourself, ‘What kind of thoughts am I having that create this?’ Louise Hay
• The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.  Captain Jack Sparrow
• Attitude

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Problem solving is a skill that can be developed

• Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems. René Descartes
• Skill,  Learning

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1. Solve one problem at a time

• Do not try to solve all life’s problems at once – learn to dread each day as it comes. Donald Kaul
• Never try to solve all the problems at once make them line up for you one-by- one. Richard Sloma
• Focus

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2.  Accept the problem exists

• When you accept that the problem already exists and stop resisting then you also stop putting more energy into the problem and “feeding it”. You can use the energy you previously fed the problem with – the energy that probably made the problem look bigger than it was – to find creative solutions to the challenge.  Henrik Edberg
• Stop resisting your problems so furiously in your mind. Stop struggling to solve them. If you do that, a great sense of peace followed by a great sense of power will come to you. Norman Vincent Peale
• Acceptance,  Acknowledgement

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3. Define the problem clearly

• The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. Bertrand Russell
• State the problem. Word it as a question.
• An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions. Robert A. Humphrey
• A problem well put is half solved. John Dewey
• Try dividing the problem into sub problems.
• In fact, merely writing the facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goes a long way toward helping us to reach a sensible decision. As Charles Kettering puts it: “A problem well stated is a problem half solved. Dale Carnegie
• It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem. K. Chesterton
• The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. Albert Einstein

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4. Ask yourself if the problem is simply a decision waiting to be made

• Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made. Robert H. Schuller
• Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made, nothing happens. Decision is the courageous facing of issues, knowing that if they are not faced, problems will remain forever unanswered.  Wilfred A. Peterson
• Never bring the problem-solving stage into the decision-making stage. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the problem rather than the solution. Robert H. Schuller
• Decision making

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5. Divide the problem into smaller problems if necessary

• There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems. Henry Ford

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6. Investigate and understand the problem

• If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• We shall find the answer when we examine the problem, the problem is never apart from the answer, the problem IS the answer, understanding the problem dissolves the problem. Bruce Lee
• The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution. Dorothea Brande
• Don’t get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one. Ludwig Wittgenstein
• If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. Albert Einstein
• It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem. K. Chesterton
• Investigation may be likened to the long months of pregnancy and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it. Mao Tse-Tung
• A problem, to be a problem, must contain an unknown. If all was known, the problem would vanish. Alan C. Walter
• To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask? Jim Rohn
• Before coming up with a solution, we need to first organize the available information. What do we know about the problem? What do we not know? The more information that is available, the better prepared we will be to come up with an accurate solution. Kendra Cherry
• One should never impose one’s views on a problem; one should rather study it, and in time a solution will reveal itself. Albert Einstein
• Understanding,  Research

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7. Don’t be afraid to do some concerted thinking

• We only think when we are confronted with a problem. John Dewey
• All the problems of the world could be settled if people were only willing to think. The trouble is that people very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work. Thomas J. Watson
• To solve a problem, it is necessary to think. It is necessary to think even to decide what facts to collect. Robert M. Hutchins
• The first step is to make the problem specific. The second step is to form theories freely of how to rid yourself of that burden.  The third step is to develop in foresight the consequences of your proposals.  The fourth and final step in thinking is to compare the consequences of your proposals to see which is best in the light of your scheme of life as a whole.  Whether you choose a vacation or a spouse, a party or a candidate, a cause to contribute to or a creed to live by –  think!   Brand Blanchar
• No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. Voltaire
• Thinking is the place where intelligent actions begin. We pause long enough to look more carefully at a situation, to see more of its character, to think about why it’s happening, to notice how it’s affecting us and others. Margaret J. Wheatley
• Thinking,  Set aside dedicated time to think

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8. Be innovative and creative in thinking of alternative solutions

• We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein
• The second assault on the same problem should come from a totally different direction. Tom Hirshfield
• To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail. Abraham Maslow
• You cannot hope to solve any problem using the same energy that created the problem. Neale Donald Walsch
• If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Anthony
• Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results. Albert Einstein
• Doing more of what doesn’t work won’t make it work any better. Charles J. Givens
• When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. Tuli Kupferberg
• Perhaps the way to meet tomorrow’s challenges is not to use yesterday’s solutions, but to dare to think the previously unthinkable, to speak the previously unspeakable, and to try that which was previously out of the question. Neale Donald Walsch
• There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. Franz Kafka
• It isn’t enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box. Tim Ferriss
• The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Innovation,  Creativity,  Creative thinking

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9. Share your problem with others

• Problems can become opportunities when the right people come together. Robert South
• There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves. Lyndon B. Johnson
• None of us is as smart as all of us. Ken Blanchard
• I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow. Woodrow Wilson
• A problem shared is a problem halved. Proverb
• Trouble is a part of your life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough. Dinah Shore
• The idea that I can’t share my problems with other people makes me not give a shit about their problems. Chuck Palahniuk
• You don’t have to solve every problem on your own and sometimes it feels better to have someone by your side, even if it is just for emotional support. Henrik Edberg
• Sharing,  Friendship

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10. Attack the root of the problem, not the symptoms

• There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. Henry David Thoreau
• When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves. Anthony J. D’Angelo

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11. Put your problem on the backburner or sleep on it

• Use your back burner. Gently hold the problem in your mind without actively analysing it. This simple technique will help you solve many problems and will greatly reduce the stress and effort in your life. Richard Carlson
• When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movie, talk to a friend, let go… The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back. Judy Collins
• Identify a particular problem or question for which you need clarity. Write the problem down just before retiring for the night, and then go to sleep, possessing full trust that you will come up with a solution to the problem. Confidently assign the problem to your subconscious mind, and expect to receive the answer during the night or upon waking in the morning. Place a pad of paper and a pen next to your bed. Maxwell Maltz
• It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it. John Steinbeck
• The research showed that when trying to solve a complex task, people who were distracted after first tackling the problem did better than people who put in conscious effort. David Rock
• I back away from conscious thought and turn the problem over to my unconscious mind. It will scan a broader array of patterns and find some new close fits from other information stored in my brain. Art Fry
• Problems, however, are rarely solved on the spur of the moment. They must be organized and dissected, then key issues isolated and defined. A period of gestation then sets in, during which these issues are mulled over. You put them in your mind and consciously or unconsciously work at them at odd hours of the day or night — even at work. It is somewhat analogous to trying to place a name on the face of someone you’ve met before. Often the solution to a problem comes to you in much the same way you eventually recall the name. Bill Hewlet
• Incubation,  Rest and renewal,  Sleep

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12.  Go for a walk

• All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. Friedrich Nietzsche
• If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. Raymond Inmon
• To solve a problem, walk around. Gregory McNamee
• Thoughts come clearly while one walks. Thomas Mann
• The most potent tool for contacting inner guidance and creativity is walking. Julia Cameron
• Solvitur ambulando. It is all solved by walking. Latin Proverb
• Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. Wallace Stevens
• Walking is good for solving problems — it’s like the feet are little psychiatrists. Terri Guillemets
• Solvitur ambulando, St. Jerome was fond of saying. To solve a problem, walk around.  Gregory McNamee
• Walking

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13.  Get still

• Inner silence promotes clarity of mind. It makes us value the inner world. It trains us to go inside to the source of peace and inspiration when we are faced with problems and challenges. Deepak Chopra
• Remember that an answer to a difficulty resides at a higher level than our usual thinking, so seek this loftier level. Vernon Howard
• Stillness,  Meditation

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14.  Monitor progress

• Effective problem-solvers tend to monitor their progress as they work towards a solution. If they are not making good progress toward reaching their goal, they will reevaluate their approach or look for new strategies. Kendra Cherry
• Progress

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15.  Some more guidelines for problem solving

• To solve the problems of today, we must focus on tomorrow. Erik Nupponen
• If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it. Dwight David Eisenhower
• When you approach a problem, strip yourself of preconceived opinions and prejudice, assemble and learn the facts of the situation, make the decision which seems to you to be the most honest, and then stick to it. Chester Bowles
• Stop looking for solutions to problems and start looking for the right path. Andy Stanley
• Don’t try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night. Philip K. Dick

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Of course, the very best way to solve a problem is to prevent it in the first place

• Intellectuals solve problems…. geniuses prevent them. Albert Einstein
• Be the lighthouse…. not the rescue boat. Lauren Zimmerman
• A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. Albert Einstein
• The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small. Witter Bynner
• A danger foreseen is half avoided. Thomas Fuller
• It is well known that “problem avoidance” is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place. Edward de Bono
• There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve. Mike Leavitt
• Every big problem was at one time a wee disturbance.
• It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. Howard Ruff
• Dig the well before you are thirsty. Chinese Proverb
• It’s much easier to stay out of trouble now than to get out of trouble later. Warren Buffett
• We think a wise person is someone who solves problems. Truth is, a wise person is someone who avoids problems. Prem Rawat

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If a problem cannot be solved, let it go

• Don’t waste your time trying to control the uncontrollable, or trying to solve the unsolvable, or think about what could have been. Instead, think about what you can control and solve the problem you can solve with the wisdom you have gained from both your victories and your defeats in the past. David Mahoney
• If you can’t solve it, it’s not a problem–it’s reality. Barbara Colorose
• Recognizing a problem is the first step to solving it… Some problems cannot be solved but you can make peace with them. Sanya Friedman
• When I can’t handle events, I let them handle themselves. Henry Ford
• When you can’t solve the problem, manage it. Robert H. Schuller
• Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, So what. That’s one of my favorite things to say. So what. Andy Warhol
• A very harmonious way to live with an awkward world would be to either try to change what pisses us off, or just accept it as it is. John C. Parkin
• My biggest problem is what to do about all the things I can’t do anything about. Ashleigh Brilliant
• Letting go

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Be wary of a solution causing more problems

• Science never solves a problem without creating ten more. George Bernard Shaw
• The chief cause of problems is solutions. Eric Sevareid
• Every solution has a problem. Steve Chandler
• If you find a good solution and become attached to it, the solution may become your next problem. Robert Anthony
• I will not force solutions on problems, thereby creating new problems. Deepak Chopra
• A solved problem creates two new problems and the best prescription for happy living is not to solve any more problems than you have to. Russell Baker
• For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong. Henry Louis Mencken

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Problems are often mind created

• All problems are illusions of the mind. Eckhart Tolle
• Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have at this moment. Eckhart Tolle
• Just as dogs love to chew bones, the mind loves to get its teeth into problems. That’s why it does crossword puzzles and builds atom bombs. Eckhart Tolle
• You only have a problem if you think it is a problem. Mueller’s Law
• God gave us the brain to work out problems. However, we use it to create more problems.
• The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein
• The mind

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Problems are often created by the ego

• The ego needs problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the sense of separateness on which its identity depends. Eckhart Tolle
• People don’t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown. Chuck Palahniuk
• The mind unconsciously loves problems because they give you an identity of sorts. Eckhart Tolle
• Transcending the ego

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Thoughts on complex problems

• Some problems are just too complicated for rational, logical solutions. They admit of insights, not answers. Jerome Wiesner
• Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well- informed just to be undecided about them. Laurence J. Peter
• Complexity,  Systems thinking

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Thoughts on the sources of some of our problems in life

• Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself. Jessye Norman
• The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. Gloria Steinem
• 80% of people’s problems are about how they feel about themselves. Joyce Meyer
• All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. Blaise Pascal
• Through money or power, you cannot solve all problems. The problem in the human heart must be solved first. The Dalai Lama

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Always put people ahead of problems

• Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to be loved. Barbara Johnson
• When one’s own problems are unsolvable, and all best efforts frustrated, it is lifesaving to listen to other people’s problems. Suzanne Massie
• There is no problem too big or too small that cannot be solved with love.  Louise L. Hay

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Resist the temptation to blame others for your problems

• Having accepted things as they are, I will take responsibility for my situation and for all those events I see as problems.
• The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny. Albert Ellis
• Blame is one of the surest ways to stay in a problem. In blaming another, we give away our power. Understanding this enables us to rise above the issue and take control of our future. The past cannot be changed. The future is shaped by our current thinking. Louise L. Hay
• Blaming

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• Laugh at your problems; everybody else does.
• There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives. Scott Adams
• No problem is too big to run away from. Charles M. Schulz
• For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong. Henry Louis Mencken
• There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise. Gore Vidal
• I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated. Poul Anderson
• Calvin : There’s no problem so awful, that you can’t add some guilt to it and make it even worse. Bill Watterson
• What a pity human beings can’t exchange problems. Everyone knows exactly how to solve the other person’s.  Olin Miller
• If a man can see both sides of a problem, you know that none of his money is tied up in it. Verda Ross
• Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem. Woody Allen
• I’ve spent the last decade learning to stand firm and face my problems… or at least batter them until they’re unrecognizable. Kelley Armstrong
• I don’t have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
• I don’t have a solution but I admire the problem. Ashleigh Brilliant
• A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
• Aah beer the cause of – and solution to – all life’s problems. Homer Simpson
• Accountant: Someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand.
• Being a philosopher, I have a problem for every solution.
• Do not try to solve all life’s problems at once – learn to dread each day as it comes. Donald Kaul
• Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. Ronald Reagan
• I don’t want to be a genius-I have enough problems just trying to be a man. Albert Camus
• Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem. John Galsworthy
• If you view your problem closely enough you will recognize yourself as part of the problem. Ducharme’s Axiom
• Indecision may or may not be my problem.  Jimmy Buffett
• Inside every small problem is a large problem struggling to get out.
• It’s not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line. Ashleigh Brilliant
• Marriage is an attempt to solve problems together which you didn’t even have when you were on your own. Eddie Cantor
• My biggest problem is what to do about all the things I can’t do anything about. Ashleigh Brilliant
• My friends tell me I have an intimacy problem. But they don’t really know me.
• No problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from! Linus van Pelt
• Philosophy: Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems. Henry Adams
• Problems are opportunities in work clothes. Henry J Kaiser
• Professor: A person whose job is to tell students how to solve the problems of life he avoided by becoming a professor.
• Psychiatrists: People with the same problems as anyone else, but with an accent.
• Remember: You can eat your way out of almost any problem.
• Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough. Earl Wilson
• Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them. Laurence J. Peter
• The chief cause of problems is solutions. Sevareid’s Law
• The easiest way to solve a problem is to pick an easy one. Franklin Jones
• To the man who only has a hammer every problem starts looking like a nail. Abraham Maslow
• War: A cowardly escape from the problems of peace.   Mann Thomas
• We are really the victims of our own problems. Jimmy Greaves
• We had different ideas as to what the problem was: she bought me Viagra; I bought her a treadmill. Jim Norton Jr.
• Whenever an expert is confounded by a seemingly insoluble problem the solution is immediately obvious to the first unqualified person who happens along. Murphy’s Law

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