One of my Twelve Commandments is “Identify the problem.” So often, I’ve noticed, I suffer some annoyance, but I don’t take the time to understand what the real problem is, so I never work on solving it. Once I force myself to identify the real problem, I often see quite clearly how to make things better.
A friend of mine applied this commandment in his own life, with great success.
我的一位朋友在自己的生活中应用了这个戒律，而且大获成功。
For years, he’d dreaded Monday mornings. He hated the re-entry stress of coming back into the office, and just at the time he was trying to get some real work done as he started his week, he’d be distracted by a million little things.
Finally, he said to himself: “Why do I dislike Monday morning so much?” He thought it over. “Because I want to make some headway on my large projects, but I have to deal with email, mail, newsletters, voice-mail, and all that, so I can’t get any real work done.” Having identified the problem, how could he solve it? He couldn’t change the nature of the work that needed to be done -- so he changed his attitude. He decided that instead of trying to start the week by doing serious work, he’d start the week doing clean-up.
Now he comes into work Monday morning without any expectations for himself until after lunch. He lets himself do easy work like checking email, reading email newsletters, answering phone messages, going over his calendar, etc., and he doesn’t consider himself “at work” until 1:30. The result? He gets about as much done as he did before, if not more – he just feels less pressure. And he doesn’t dread Monday mornings.
By understanding and accepting the peculiarities of his schedule, he was able to make work more pleasant and less frustrating. He didn’t have to change anything except his attitude, but it wasn’t until he “Identified the problem” that he saw what he needed to do.
Have you ever managed to “Identify a problem” in a way that clarified how to solve your problem? This sounds so obvious, but countless times, I’ve found myself astonished by what a difference this exercise makes.
