Problems first, not solutions!

New Roads Travelled -

Start with the problems you are facing right now, and work on their solutions, before you start implementing every piece of advice you hear.

If you’re spending time focusing on making changes that aren’t important to you right now, you are wasting your time and energy that could be spent on making the changes that will truly make a difference in your life.

I saw a post on Instagram that had 50 rules for life. Fifty! I had heard most of these pieces of advice before and most of them are probably useful and good for you in some way...

  1. Focus on what you can control
  2. Own the morning
  3. Meditate and Journal
  4. Don’t compare yourself to others
  5. Make time for rest
  6. Drink more water
  7. Focus on the positives
  8. Eat healthily
  9. Seek out challenges
  10. Sleep at least 8 hours a night

(and that’s only 10 of them!)

But the problem is, we hear about these changes we can make to our mindset and our routines, and we try to implement them (usually all at the same time) which can be overwhelming and ineffective in actually making our lives better. It’s almost impossible to focus on all of this at once!

It is also easy to retroactively assign a ‘why’ to these changes after you hear about them and convince yourself you need the change in your life right now.

  • I’ve heard it’s good to meditate, and after reading up about it I can see there are so many benefits! I can’t believe I wasn’t meditating before. Better start now!
  • People keep telling me I need more sleep, they are probably right, I guess I’ll force myself to go to bed early tonight.
  • I’m going to make time for rest because they say you shouldn’t overwork yourself, even though I have so many deadlines and I feel unorganised!

The problem is that these habits and mindset shifts never last when there is not a true ‘why’ behind the change.

Instead, think about the problems and challenges that you are facing in your life right now (use the problem hierarchy to map these out) and then start thinking of ways to overcome these problems that work for you.

For example:

Problem: I discovered that I have more anxious thoughts when I allow my mind to run at its natural pace (100 miles an hour!), therefore I want to begin slowing my mind so that I can decrease the number of anxious thoughts I experience at any given moment.
Solution: I could try meditation to practice focusing my attention and slowing my thoughts down.
Problem: I find myself struggling to fall asleep at night and its increasing my anxiety surrounding sleep
Solution: Find soothing music and soundscapes to listen to at night when I’m falling asleep
Problem: I find myself feeling regretful when I sleep in and start my day scrolling on Instagram
Solution: Have my phone out of reach so I am forced to get up and practice meditating or journaling first thing in the morning before I go on social media.

These habits never stuck before I had a true reason why.

Start with the problems you are facing right now and work on their solutions, before you start implementing the advice you hear.