Life often throws curveballs with the power to lower your mood and success. But how you handle setbacks can alter the outcome of events and help them go your way. Develop a solution-based mindset, and your motivation and success rate will expand.
Dwelling on Problems Hurts
Difficulties grow when you focus on them. Unconstructive thoughts about them create stress that makes coping even harder. When you suffer from chronic worry, you shift into fight-or-flight mode. Energy floods into your body to help you flee or go into battle.
The brain area responsible for reasoning stops functioning as it should because you focus on survival. The result is less capacity to apply reason to problems and manage them well.
Dwelling on problems also hurts because it can make you ill. Your immunity plummets if you spend too long in fight-or-flight. Again, your energy shifts from helping you handle threats like viruses or healing ailments, and you suffer.
Focusing on problems can become a habit
Intense scrutiny of problems without seeking solutions can become an unhelpful habit. When you concentrate on what’s wrong without considering how to improve, your anxiety-related brain connections grow.
Solution-seeking can also become habitual, though, and you can change your mindset. Keep looking for ways to solve difficulties, and you will get used to doing so and continue down the line when more problems arise.
Focus on solutions
Whether you have business problems, financial issues, or a health crisis, turn your mind toward how best to handle circumstances. Do what you can to improve the situation, and if you don’t know what to do, get expert help. Find someone who knows more than you to support you.
Sometimes, you can’t change difficult circumstances. Yet, you can always look into ways to make your life easier and more comfortable. When you develop a solution-based mindset, you will seek answers on auto-pilot. Problems won’t get you down and ruin your well-being.
Changing your mindset
Repetition is the key to altering your frame of mind and behaviour. Practice solution-seeking until you need not remind yourself to engage in your new preferable behaviour. At first, you might catch yourself worrying rather than switching to solution mode. Give yourself time to get used to changing your brain’s wiring. After all, it took an age to develop a worry-based outlook.
Look at your beliefs about how effective you are, too. Can you change and make improvements? Some people attribute circumstances to fate, while others consider themselves responsible for what happens to them.
Those who recognise they can improve their lives fare better than people who accept fate as their master. If you want to become solution-focused, you need to believe answers to your dilemmas exist and that you can access them.
Beginning the solution-seeking process
Recognise what you want before seeking solutions. Consider an ideal outcome and imagine you’ve reached it. Now, ask yourself how you got there. Did you need help? You might have secured a loan to increase finances or received wisdom from someone more experienced than you. Perhaps you studied and gained a new qualification to help you or took another valuable action.
Check your resources once you know what you want and how to progress. Who can assist you in your social circle? What actions can you take to ramp up your ability to improve circumstances? Brainstorm ideas, jotting them down even when they seem obscure, and assess them a few hours or days later.
Brainstorming will set your mind on a solution-based track. You might find inspiration in your dreams or encounter lightbulb moments when inspiration strikes. Or you may realise you already have the resources to solve your problems.
Problems are unavoidable, but you can change your mindset and shift it in a solution-oriented direction. Aim to find answers rather than worry about problems. The simple act of switching your focus will boost motivation and help you succeed.
Disclosure: The information provided is for educational purposes only, based on personal experience, and should not be considered expert advice. Always seek guidance from qualified professionals regarding these topics.