One day, an old man woke up early in the morning and was sipping a hot cup of coffee. Seated on his couch he was eagerly waiting for his grandson to bring the newspaper to him. Every morning it was a ritual for the old man to spend time scanning through the news across the neighbourhood, his small little town and even the country. As soon as the grandson came, he eagerly grabbed the newspaper and started to search frantically for something. Seeing this, the grandchild asked the grandfather what he was searching for. The grandfather just signaled that he knew what he was searching for and would find it soon.
But even after couple of minutes, when he was still searching, the grandfather told the little boy that he was trying to find his spectacles. The little boy could not control his laughter and went upto the grandfather and pulled it out of the old man’s head - it was tucked up over his forehead.
The boy hugged the grandfather and laughingly said, “It was right over your face and you were searching for it all over the place.” It was only then that the old man realised that he was searching for his spectacles all at the wrong places where it was right over his head.
The old man is not the only one; don’t we all do that so very often? There is a problem somewhere and we try to find solutions somewhere else.
We are frustrated with something in life, and we show the frustration on something else, or even worse, somewhere else, sometimes realising that we are not doing the right thing, sometimes not even realising that.
Life puts everyone into situations that we don’t want to be in, and we often make endless search in directions that the solution is not meant to be in. If only we are able to identify the problem right in the first instance, that we could look for solutions in the right direction. And being mindful is the first step towards this.
Problems are solved when focus remains on the solution: When you focus on the problems, you will have more problems. When you focus on solutions, more doors open, more opportunities arise.
Look for simple solutions: Sometimes solutions to the most complex problems are simple. Some problems become complicated when we start looking for complicated solutions.
Fight with the problem, not with the people: Problems can be resolved when we fight the underlying issue. Problems grow multifold when we fight people instead of fighting on the problem.
Look within for the solution: When you have a problem don’t look around for someone on who to fixing the blame. First look within, both for the problem and for the solution. Be optimistic and open to the solutions.
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