Problem Solving From The Present
How to separate events from your interpretation to make faster, more powerful choices at work.
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“… [a] patients medial temporal lobe was severely injured in a motorcycle accident. The patient was asked by his doctor — “do you feel hopeful about the future?” To which he responded “I guess so, I don’t really think much about the future.” That same patient once described thinking about the future as being asked to find a chair in an empty room. The future and the past seem to be somehow linked in the mind. When you let your mind wonder, you switch back and forth all the time, remembering and imagining. Your mind is a time machine.”
- Emma Stone, from “The Mind Explained”
Problems only exist in time⏳
Someone once told me that problems only exist in time. I honestly don’t remember who it was. And at first, I didn’t get it. What does that mean? Problems only exist in time? Sounds meta, definitely not useful.
About a year later, the power went out in my apartment.
“F*ck” I thought. “How am I going to cook dinner?” My mind’s time machine kicked in — “It’s going to be freezing in my apartment tonight. Do I have a flashlight? I can barely see my way over to the closet. The flashlight isn’t in here. What happened to it? I bet I let someone borrow it. People never return things they borrow. I really don’t feel like ordering dinner or going out. Where am I going to go? It’s a weeknight. How long will this last for?”
This unproductive internal debate went on for about thirty minutes. Until it stopped. For some reason, I remembered the quote: “problems only exist in time.” Alas, it hit me. I understood what it meant.
Being in the present.
Losing electricity isn’t a problem in the present moment. It’s not a problem for the electricity, and it’s not a problem for the apartment either. It’s only a problem for Y.O.U. Why? Because you’re human.
Humans create problems in our mind’s time machine. We love problem solving so much that we make up future problems that don’t exist just to solve them. Ray Dalio has a wonderful bit on this in his book Principles — The Life Principles part, section 2.3.
Ok so what, why does this matter?
The event vs. your interpretation.
Humans are not good at distinguishing events that happen in reality from our interpretation of events. Said differently, it is not in our nature to separate the power outage (event in reality) from the meaning we assign to it.
Event: Power outage in my apartment.
Interpretation of event:
Future thoughts —
F*ck, how am I going to cook dinner?
It’s going to be freezing in my apartment!
Where am I going to go?
Past thoughts —
Do I have a flashlight?
What happened to it [flashlight]?
People never return things they borrow.
We say things things to ourselves like they are facts, even though we’re completely making them up based on past occurrences and what may or may not happen in the future.
Now let’s make one thing clear. The above thought process is completely normal. Imagine not having access to past thoughts, or the ability to forecast the future? That would suck. Our mind’s time machine is a superpower many ways. It isn’t the point of this post to argue for or against the time machine. The point is that this distinction — separating events from how they occur to us (interpretations) — is a powerful leadership skill that you can use to stay present and problem solve a lot faster.
As people building companies and working on creative projects, unwanted events happen all the time. The difference between addressing issues powerfully vs. getting bogged down by what may or may not happen, based on what’s already happened in the past, lies in our ability to see events clearly. Focusing on our already existing interpretation of the event clouds the event itself, making the event more challenging to see and far more difficult to deal with. When we remove the fog, a wider range of solutions emerge. We can begin addressing the event itself instead of the story we created about it.
Separating the event from your interpretation 🤯
// Step 1 is to get clear on the event. Events happen in reality. They just are, and they simply have no inherent meaning.
Event: Power outage in my apartment
// Step 2 is to pretend like there is no interpretation.
Interpretation of event: Nothing.
// Step 3 is to create a powerful interpretation instead of letting your mind’s time machine take over and run the show. Create one that moves you toward action.
New, powerful interpretation:
This is an opportunity to go have a long dinner with a friend.
If the power doesn’t come back on tonight, I’m checking out that new hotel.
I’ll get my landlord to reimburse me for the trouble.
Now let’s look at a more serious example in company building.
A real world startup example
Ever wondered how companies get down to the very last of their cash, stressing to raise money in two weeks or firing employees without warning?
Event: $75k in the bank, $25k monthly burn (3 months)
Interpretation of event:
Future thoughts —
We only have three months of cash left!
My investors are going to flip.
What am I going to tell my friends and family?
Past thoughts —
Why hasn’t my sales team delivered?
It’s always worked out in the past.
This is just what happens in startups.
All of these thought patterns are normal. The problem is that none of them are useful or productive in solving a very real cash flow problem.
Creating from Nothing 👩🔬
Let’s try this again, creating a new interpretation from nothing.
Event: $75k in the bank, $25k monthly burn (3 months)
Interpretation of event: Nothing.
New, powerful interpretation
$75k can last us six months if we cut our burn to $12.5k.
If we share this with our investors today, they might help.
We can put controls in place so this doesn’t happen again.
Staying in the present.
Meditation coupled with tools like the one above have gone a long way in helping me stay present in building The New Company and helping our clients build too. I’m still working at it and am by no means an expert. Next time an unwanted problem arises in your work, try the above. Don’t get bogged down by the story your mind is already telling you. Take out a notepad and create a new story. Take action and share with us how it goes. You might find the solutions begin to come quicker and more naturally.
