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Problem Solving Other People's Problems

Have you ever tried to solve someone else's problem? Not a shared problem between you and the other person, but a problem that is truly their own.

How does that work?


Now matter how effective, how creative, how robust your solution is, it's still not your problem. It's still up to that other person to solve. They might even resist your ideas. They might even resent your ideas. The harder you try, the less effective it seems.

It's troubling, disturbing, disappointing. Why put yourself thru that?


It's so hard to solve other people's problems that we're better off helping them learn how to solve them.

They'll be better off, because now they have an improved skill they can use again and again. You'll be better off because the frustration will be many times less or gone completely.

We all need to learn how to solve our problems.

We all need to learn how to effectively help others as well.

What can you do today to learn more about solving your own problems?

-- Douglas Brent Smith


(Photograph by Stephen Downes)

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