• Home
  • New? Start Here
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Real Mom Life

  • Purpose and Passion
    • Planners
    • Purpose and passion
    • Reinvention
    • Retirement
    • Starting a business
    • Volunteering
    • Working
    • Trying new things
    • Ageism
    • Giving back
    • Confidence
    • Encore careers
    • Encouragement
    • Gratitude
    • Happiness
    • Inspiration
    • Lifelong Learning
  • Adventure
    • Travel
    • Technology
    • Trying new things
    • Books and movies
    • Embracing change
    • Fun
    • Holidays
    • Pets
  • Relationships
    • Marriage
    • Friendships
    • Parenting
    • Painful parenting
    • Mothering
    • Grandparenting
    • Aging parents
    • Empty nest
    • Cancer caregiving
    • Child adoption
    • Homeschooling
    • Special needs kids
    • Life skills for kids
    • Activities for kids
  • Health and Beauty
    • Alternative health practices
    • Fashion
    • Hair care
    • Health insurance
    • Healthy aging
    • Healthy brain
    • Makeup
    • Medical issues
    • Mental health
    • Sexuality
    • Skin care
    • Sleep
    • Stress
    • Nutrition
    • Physical fitness
    • Self-care
  • Creativity and Spirituality
    • Faith
    • Crafts
    • Hobbies
    • Art journaling
    • Blogging
    • Journaling
    • Jewelry making
    • Writing
  • Home and Finances
    • Cleaning
    • Cooking and food
    • Declutter
    • Decor
    • DIY Home
    • Downsize
    • Gardening
    • Holidays
    • Organizing
    • Saving money
    • Simplify
  • Coffee Love
  • Rants, Raves and Reviews
  • Bucket List
  • Store

The Skill of Problem Solving

May 23, 2018 By Christine Field

This post may contain affiliate links.

Got problems to solve?

Everyone could use knowledge in how to efficiently and effectively solve problems, no matter what your professional or personal situation may be. Solution-based thinking involves the ability to identify, assess and act upon issues that arise in your life. Unfortunately, many of us are lacking the skills to be able to tackle this process well.

However, like most skills, problem-solving can be learned and improved upon. That’s what our time together will focus on over the next month. I’ll share with you knowledge about what problem solving is, an easy process you can implement into your own life and more.
Without a firm grasp as to how to manage issues as they arrive, we’re prone to ignoring things, letting them build up until they end up worse than they were in the first place. This is a damaging cycle that many of us fall into. It’s human nature. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad or flawed person. During our time together throughout this challenge, I hope to show you how an understanding of basic problem-solving skills can help you to be more productive and successful in nearly every aspect of your life.

There are lots of advantages to gaining strong problem-solving skills. Employers look for these abilities in their staff. This is true no matter what your industry or field. When you show you can make decisions under pressure and that you have the ability to follow through, you gain a reputation as someone who is a leader and who is dependable.

Throughout the next month, we’ll look at various aspects of problem-solving, starting with a very basic system that you can refer to as you learn to make this process a part of your everyday experience. We’ll talk about your attitude regarding problems, how to approach them and

to identify which specific issues are truly deserving of your focus.
I’ll also share with you tons of hands-on strategies you can put to immediate use to help you solve the problems you encounter throughout your days. You’ll discover ways you can help yourself, family, friends, co-workers and those around you as you learn to become a more efficient manager of the everyday life issues you encounter.

Let’s get started!

A Very Basic Problem Solving Process

There are lots of approaches to problem-solving out there, and there’s no one right way to go about the process. In fact, I’ll share a more in-depth method with you later in our challenge, but for now I’d like to start with the basics. Knowing a quick and easy method for dealing with problems as you encounter them will get you started. Once you have some practice under your belt, you’ll gain confidence to move onto more in-depth problem-solving methods.

Understand the Problem

In order to get started on the right foot, you must first be sure you understand the problem you’re facing. It’s easy to misinterpret things and to find yourself chasing an issue that isn’t truly relevant. A bit of analysis and thought will save you time and frustration in the long run. Rather than allow the problem to exist as a vague idea in your mind, it’s best to work it out on paper. Jot down some ideas about what the issue at hand may be, how it started, who is involved and what the primary negative effects of the situation may be. These notes will get you thinking in the right direction toward narrowing down and defining your problem. Through this step, you’ll be able to hone in on the main issue so that you can postpone any side problems for later. You don’t want to allow less important issues distract you.

Brainstorm Solutions

This next step involves using your creativity to generate a list of possible solutions. At this time, it’s not important to analyze these ideas. Simply get them out of your head and onto paper. Who knows what ideas might actually work once you’re able to add analysis and planning to the nix? The purpose here is to obtain as many solutions as possible without dismissing anything.

Analyze Your Solutions

Here’s where the analysis comes into play. This is the part where you get to play detective and to employ your critical thinking skills. Consider the pros and cons of each idea you generated. Be sure to take circumstances into consideration, along with any other relevant criteria. Not every solution will work in every situation. Consider your current life circumstances and how the proposed solution might evolve within this context. This part of the problem-solving process allows you to see which solutions might actually have promise and which might not. Through analysis, you might find that some ideas you would have once ruled out actually have potential under certain conditions, and you can feel more confident in giving them a try.

Choose Your Path

The last step of this simple method is to actually choose and test your solutions. Take a look at the ideas that remain from your analyzing activity. Then rate those from most likely to be effective to least. Finally, give your first idea a try. If it doesn’t work, you can either tweak it a bit by making adjustments or scrap it completely by moving on to give your second plan of choice a try. Revision and revisiting may be required. I’ll elaborate on this in later blog posts.

For now, you have a very basic problem-solving process that should suffice when it comes to practicing these new skills. By implementing this method regularly, you’ll start to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. You’ll soon begin implementing this strategy into your life automatically, leading you to feel much more confident in your ability to come up with solutions that work.

Filed Under: Embracing change Tagged With: problem solving

Previous Post: « 11 Smart Strategies That Help You Discover Your True Talents and Skills
Next Post: How to Move On From a Bad Decision »

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

FacebookInstagrammailPinterestYouTubeTwitter

Hi, I’m Christine

Have you been a wholehearted mother, but time, toddlers and teenagers have moved on? If you are wondering what comes next for you, you’ll feel right at home here.

Or, are you a mom for whom family life has been non-Pinworthy and parenting has been downright painful? I hear ya. There are many of us around.

Are you looking for a life full of exploration and adventure after the nest empties, but maybe you have no idea how to go about doing that? Stick around! We’ll explore adventures together to help you gain more clarity for your own path.

After a couple decades of writing books and articles about parenting, homeschooling and adoption, speaking to homeschoolers and other parent groups, and reaching out to the mom in the trenches who was trying to make the best of it - my kids grew up. Some grew up and grew away. I was determined to find a way out of the pain, emptiness and lack of direction.

For many of us, the journey starts with something we moms are not accustomed to. After years of caring for and serving others, sometimes we forget the beauty and wonder of US. We need to spend some time getting to know the parts of ourselves that have lain dormant, and take the time to explore interests and passions that we set aside.

I’d like to invite you to get the “What’s Next for Mom” workbook and jump into this growing tribe of Moms who are emptying the nest and filling the life! Let’s reignite your Mojo after Mothering!
Read More…

Visit my Amazon Influencer Storefront

www.amazon.com/shop/christine.field.7505

Search the Blog

Want to Search For Something?

Disclosure and Privacy Policy

Real Mom Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

 

Cookie policy

This website will store some information about your preferences on your own computer inside a tiny file called a cookie.  A cookie is a small piece of data that a website asks your browser to store on your computer or mobile device. The cookie allows the website to remember your actions or preferences over time.

You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer, and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. However, if you do this, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site, and some services and functionalities may not work.

Most browsers support cookies, but you can set your browser to decline them and can delete them whenever you like. You can find instructions here for how you can do that on various browsers.

This website uses cookies to

1) Identify you as a returning user and to count your visits in traffic statistics analysis

2) Remember your custom display preferences (such as whether you prefer comments to display all-collapsed or not)

3) Suggest any recent searches you’ve made on our site

4) Provide other usability features, including tracking whether you’ve already given your consent to cookies

Enabling cookies is not strictly necessary for the website to work but it will provide you with a better browsing experience.

The cookie-related information is not used to identify you personally and is not used for any purpose other than those described here.

There may also be other types of cookies created after you’ve visited this website. This site uses Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service that uses cookies to help to analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of another website, compiling reports on website activity, and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

Third Party Advertising

This site has third-party advertising companies serving ads to you when you visit. These companies may store information about your visits here and to other websites in order to provide you with relevant advertisements about goods and services. For example, if they know what ads you are shown while visiting this site, they can be careful not to show you the same ones repeatedly.

These companies may employ cookies and other identifiers to gather information which measures advertising effectiveness. The information is generally not personally identifiable unless, for example, you provide personally identifiable information to them through an ad or an email message.

They do not associate your interaction with unaffiliated sites with your identity in providing you with interest-based ads.

This site does not provide any personal information to advertisers or to third party sites. Advertisers and other third-parties (including the ad networks, ad-serving companies, and other service providers they may use) may assume that users who interact with or click on a personalized ad or content are part of the group that the ad or content is directed towards (for example, readers in the Pacific Northwest who read certain types of articles). Also, some third-party cookies may provide them with information about you (such as the sites where you have been shown ads or demographic information) from offline and online sources that they may use to provide you more relevant and useful advertising.

To learn more about what options you have about limiting the gathering of information by third-party ad networks, you can consult the website of the Network Advertising Initiative.

You can opt out of participating in interest-based advertising networks, but opting out does not mean you will no longer receive online advertising. It does mean that the companies from which you opted out will no longer customize ads based on your interests and web usage patterns using cookie-based technology.

Sharing Information

This site does not sell, rent, or disclose to outside parties the information collected here, except as follows:

(a) Affiliated Service Providers: This site has agreements with various affiliated service providers to facilitate the functioning of the site. For example, the site may share your credit card information with the credit card service provider to process your purchase. All administrative service providers that this site uses are required to have the same level of privacy protection as this site does, and therefore your information will be handled with the same level of care. Additionally, for example, this site may use analytic or marketing services such as Google Analytics, Google Adsense, Taboola, or RevContent, to which collection you hereby unconditionally consent.

(b) Where required by law: This site may share the collected information where required by law, specifically in response to a demand from government authorities where such demand meets the legal requirements.

(c) Statistical Analysis: This site may share Non-Personal Information and aggregated information with third parties, including but not limited to for advertising or marketing purposes. No Personal Information will be shared in this manner.

(d) Transactions: In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition, or in any other situation where Personal Information may be disclosed or transferred as a business asset.

How To Opt Out Of Interest-Based Advertising


Opting Out of Interest-Based Advertising Services: This website is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative(NAI) and adheres to the NAI Codes of Conduct as described on the NAI website. This website also adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Self-Regulatory Principles. For a description of the DAA Program, please visit the DAA website.

Opting Out of Interest-Based Advertising by Third Parties: To find out more about interest-based advertising on the internet and how to opt out of information collection for this purpose by companies that participate in the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance, visit NAI’s opt-out page or DAA’s Consumer Choice Page.

 

Footer

About Christine

FacebookInstagrammailPinterestYouTubeTwitter

At Real Mom Life, my passion is to provide resources and reassurances for moms facing the surprising challenges of family life. In my writing and speaking, I explore solutions to unexpected issues in adoption, homeschooling, special needs, and more while encouraging moms to extract the maximum joy out of each day. Read More…

Real Mom Life

Real Mom Life

10339 S. Kostner Ave.

                              Oak Lawn, IL 60453

 

Copyright © 2023 Real Mom Life on the Foodie Pro Theme