How to handle Problems Like a Pro

The 90/10 Rule

Since nothing is perfect in life, it helps to have a philosophy about how to look at problems. You aren’t going to be able to get away from problems so why not get a philosophy that allows you to absorb them and keep moving, staying in a happy, balanced and positive frame of mind. Let’s analyze the issue.

 

Perspective - 90% goes well

If you think about things in life you'll find that nine times out of ten or 90 percent of the time most things turn out okay, but 10 percent of the time things go haywire. It’s important to realize you don’t have to fall apart when they do and you don’t have to let it ruin your day. 

 

The problem 10%

I’m sure you’ve had experiences like this. A particular situation goes bad, then for some reason it seems like everything you do to fix it just makes it worse. Nothing seems to help, everything you do makes it worse and it soon becomes obvious that there's going to be no way of fixing it. Life isn’t perfect. Not everything turns out well and some problems just seem to refuse to be fixed. Of course you should do everything you can to correct it but if you can't fix it, you can't fix it.

Breaking down the 10% - Half of it’s your fault

If you analyze the 10% you'll usually discover that about 5% or half of the time what goes wrong is your fault. You can’t escape the blame. You messed up, but on the other hand it’s only 1 out 20 that comes back on you. Apologize or do whatever else you can to make it better. Then move on. 

 

The other 5% is somebody else's fault.

It might be caused by some institution, some situation outside of your control or another person. That 5% is it's somebody else's fault but the result is the same, it’s still a problem that impacts you. They messed up, you get hurt. If you are expecting perfection, justice and fairness out of life you have a real opportunity to get really upset. It’s not fair! You’re outraged! So what. It doesn’t help the situation.

 

Your choice

It’s a matter of what is more profitable for you to focus on, the 90% that goes well or the 10% problems. 

It’s a simple choice.  If something's gone wrong and it's not going to turn out right, you can either make yourself miserable spending your life focusing on it or instead focus on the other 9 things that went well.

 

Consider air travel...

If you fly a lot, one time out of ten you're probably going to have a bad flight, it’s unavoidable. Nine times out of ten it will probably go smoothly but eventually you’ll get one that goes bad. There will be a delay, bad weather, mechanical problem, or something else. You’ll be late, sit on the runway or even have a cancelled flight. It’s infuriating, it ruins your plans and sets off a domino effect of other problems. So what are you going to do? You can rant and rave all you want but it won’t change anything except increase your stress levels. However, if you step back and look on it with perspective, you’ll realize this was only once out of 10 flights and just decide it’s basically a price you pay for flying and shrug the annoyance off. Of course, sometimes you can have problems with several bad flights in a row, but over the long haul it evens out. 

When problems come, remember the 90/10 Rule, it will save you a lot of stress!