You must adopt a positive habit for dealing with all problems in your life.

Everyone has day to day problems, this is an undeniable fact of life. However, it is how you tackle those problems, and the way you deal with them – which will ultimately see you either succeed or fail in life’s endeavours.

The choice is yours, and you have two easy options to choose from –

1. You can choose to deal with your problems with a positive mindset
2. or you can choose to deal with them with a negative mindset.

The choices are simple yet the solution to a successful life eludes most. The reason it eludes people is because they choose to deal with their problems with a negative mindset. In doing so they become bogged down by each and every problem, until the multitude of unresolved problems become all too much to handle – and they are forced to give up.

In an effort to help those who continually deal with their problems with a negative mindset – we have come up with a simple 3 step process called - The AAA Formula.

Step One:- Acknowledge the Problem

Acknowledge that the problem exists. Many people don’t ever reach this first step, and instead they avoid the problem and choose to bury their head in the sand. They simply hope that the issue will quietly go away with absolutely no effort on their part. In most cases, the problem remains and never gets addressed, consequently becoming larger, and more detrimental over time.

So acknowledge that the problem exists. Once the problem has been acknowledged and it is recognised, you can readily move onto the second step.

Step Two:- Assess the Problem

This might sound simple enough but it is important to assess the problem using a positive mindset. With a positive mindset, answers and solutions will come readily to you, and at times, the problem will seem to work itself out. This is possible because you are viewing the problem with the correct mindset and are attaching a positive flow to the process.

If solutions are not readily forthcoming, then you can roadmap the dilemma. You can do this by writing the problem down on the centre of the page and drawing a box around it. Proceed to draw lines out from the box, where you can write possible solutions down.

You might even find it necessary to draw more lines off of the solutions as you process and assess the options you have available to you in rectifying the problem at hand.

The most important part of this process is you have chosen to focus on the possible solutions as opposed to focusing on the problem. You have forced your attention away from the problem.

People who deal with their problems with a negative mindset will tend to focus on the problem itself (see diagram). In doing so they mentally magnify the problem into a larger one. The cycle of further magnification happens, as they focus further on the problem, rather than looking for a solution. The problem in their mind, ultimately becomes too big to control.

The third and most importantly step to take is to action the solution.

Step Three:- Action the Solution

Having the solution to any of your problems will not help you – unless you action it.

In a business environment, an example of a solution not being actioned is when a business suffers from a cashflow problem. The solutions at hand could be varied, from reducing overheads to ensuring account customers funds are collected quicker. Just having a solution to fix your cash flow problem wont fix the problem unless you action it.

Once solutions are actioned, the result is a containment of the problem and you are returned back to the Acknowledgement step. This is where you acknowledge that the problem has been fixed, and if so it completes the cycle. If the problem needs to be addressed further you follow the steps again until the problem has been completely fixed and contained.

In this way, the problem never becomes bigger because it has been contained and dealt with. Furthermore, these little blocks of containment will build your stepping stones toward a strong foundation for personal and business growth.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, uncontained problems will simply swell and grow around you, until eventually they engulf you entirely. It is a sad fact that a large percentage of the population will always choose to deal and address a problem using a negative mindset.

So, while they might reach the Acknowledge stage of the equation, because of their negative mindset, they take a far different path than the positive thinking person. That path will lead them through a cycle of reviewing the problem, which will consistently magnify at each pass, so that it becomes an impossible to solve issue in their mind. As the cycle continues to grow, the problem increasingly becomes bigger and bigger until, eventually, it overwhelms them completely.

The only way to break the cycle is for them to actually choose to challenge the problem with a positive mindset.
It is never too late to follow the positive mindset path to Assess the problem. The choice just needs to be made and then the path followed.