Whenever you encounter a problem in your professional life either as a business manager, or in your daily life as a spouse, parent or sibling, shift your negative thinking until you see the opportunity. Try to turn problems into opportunities at every occasion.
Why is it important to turn problems into opportunities?
Every day, we are faced with a tremendous number of problems and decisions to make. How we react to those problems is a large determiner of how happy we are, or how successful we are going to be. We can gnash our teeth in anguish at the horrible things that have happened to us, or we can find a better way to deal with the problem; we can find good solutions.
Examples of turning problems into opportunities
- Someone is opposing your change to become healthier, or better in decision-making, or with time management, etc. The opportunity is a teachable moment — you can take that opportunity to share why you are doing what you are doing, why it is important, and in doing so, educate others.
- You lose your luggage and the passport in a foreign country. This is an opportunity to interact with local people, learn their language, surrender yourself to the idea of asking for help, and find your way in a difficult situation.
- You fail at completing the task such as publishing a new article every single day in the given month — an opportunity to learn what happened during the days when you have not written anything, how to let go of what you wish things would be, find an opportunity to manage your time better, and instead, re-invent yourself and explore new things.
- You are having trouble at work because your project is not progressing as you had planned— which is an opportunity to practice gratitude for what you have currently achieved, including having that project and your job at all.
How to turn problems into opportunities?
- Pay attention to the times when you are having difficulty. What is frustrating you? This problem is an opportunity.
- When you notice a problem, search for the opportunity. It is there, if you look carefully.
- Some ideas for the opportunities: the opportunity to practice patience, to remember to be grateful, to meet someone new, to explore a new area of life, to learn a new skill, to get better at something, to work on a relationship, to improve your advancement opportunities, to learn to be passionate, to educate, to let go, to be present, to breathe.
- Write down the opportunity, so that it hits home.
One of the best methods that I have learned is to find the opportunity for progress and growth in every problem. A problem is only a problem, if we think it is. If instead, we see it as something good, then it is not going to cause frustration, anger, irritation, sadness, etc.
