Okay! Not THAT kind of protion control, but I did want to emphasize something. So many times we get overwhelmed because we don't know that we can break things down into smaller portions, and then tackle each one individually. This in and of itself will save you HOURS of stress!
In an effort to relieve you of some added stress, I'm going to give you two words to live by: Chunk Up.
Each problem is a small piece of a greater problem. In the same way that you can explore a problem laterally — such as by playing with words or challenging assumptions — you can also explore it at different “altitudes”.
If you feel you’re overwhelmed with details or looking at a problem too narrowly, look at it from a more general perspective. In order to make your problem more general, ask questions such as: “What’s this a part of?”, “What’s this an example of?” or “What’s the intention behind this?”.
Another approach that helps a lot in getting a more general view of a problem is replacing words in the problem statement with hypernyms. Hypernyms are words that have a broader meaning than the given word. (For example, a hypernym of ‘car’ is ‘vehicle’). A great, free tool for finding hypernyms for a given word is WordNet (just search for a word and click on the ‘S:’ label before the word definitions).
A good question worth asking is whether the "problem" you're defining is really just a symptom of a deeper problem.
For example, a high heating bill might be the "problem" and an obvious solution would be to check to see if your heating system is broken, or needs updating for better efficiency.
But maybe the bigger problem is that the people in your house use heat wastefully, and why's that?
Because they don't perceive the negative consequences; they don't have to pay the bill themselves, perhaps, so they're not conscious of how wasting heat will affect them.
Breaking things down to where they are manageable takes time and a desire to move BEYOND the current issue. Sometimes, we stay focused on a PROBLEM because to focus on a SOLUTION would require making an acknowledgement that something needs to change...but that's a story for another time....SO! HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT???
ONE BITE AT A TIME! OR you can call me, and we can work on it together!
Amanda Wernick
Career Development Manager
Seven Gables Real Estate
714-837-7753
714-837-7753
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