Steve Pavlina’s The Most Direct Solution to Any Problem is a great article. He suggests that the best way to solve a problem is likely the most direct way to solve the problem.

Many problems will have multiple direct solutions, but often these solutions will be unsavory at first glance because they’ll require courage, self-discipline, creativity, or persistence to implement. But if we can somehow get ourselves to follow through, we know the solutions will actually work.

…Another example: Suppose you’re interested in starting a relationship with someone, but you don’t know how that person feels about you. One direct solution would be to simply walk up, explain your thoughts and feelings, and ask if s/he is interested in discussing the possibility of a closer relationship. This will take less than a minute to say, and regardless of the outcome, at least you know where you stand. Of course this solution may require a lot of courage to overcome the possibility of rejection, but it’s very simple and straightforward.

The article goes on to say that very often ones laziness or insecurity prevents them from taking the direct route, favoring instead the path of least resistance; which too often is doing nothing about the problem. But there is a saying that goes something like “if you have a problem and in three months you have the same problem, the problem is actually you.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Makes You Think. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.