Life is all about how you respond to problems

So close yet so far 🤯

This week already had it’s weird challenges (including turning up to the wrong private members club for a business meeting) so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised this Sunday morning when another problem beset me.

What happened?

I woke up bright and early for a round of golf with 3 friends I hadn’t seen in ages. Modern life being modern life, we had booked it in a months before (something I was regretting when my alarm went off at 6am having only gone to bed a few hours before).

Having showered, breakfasted and done all the other morning excitements, I headed down to my building’s car park ready to go — amazingly for me I was actually ahead of schedule for once.

Lucky that I was!

It never rains, it just gets bizarre

First up, I noticed that overnight my car had become a trampoline for the foxes that live in the garage (or so the massive amount of muddy fox footprints 🦊 👣 on the roof of the car seemed to suggest)

Foxes just love my car

I had no time to deal with that, instead I leapt into the car ready to go. I loaded up the golf club’s address in my sat nav and it said it was 45 minutes away and that I’d get there 20 minutes early.

Time to engage engines and go… Only I couldn’t because when I got to the car park gates they simply wouldn’t open.

It didn’t matter what I did, my little zapper wouldn’t open the gates.

I tried the zapper from different locations in and out of the car park — no joy

I tried to force the gate open by hand — no joy

I tried calling the emergency number — no joy; it seems the number is only for emergencies on weekdays 🤔

I tried messaging the residents WhatsApp group — it seems everyone was asleep

I must admit, I got quite angry but angry doesn’t solve the problem; the gate was still firmly shut and I needed to get out.

My nemesis

What were my options?

Taking a step back, I realised the clock was ticking and I needed a solution fast.

Like any good strategist I quickly ran through my best 5 options:

1. Try and get a lift with one of the other people playing — unfortunately they had all already left
2. Get public transport —that would have involved a bus, 2 trains and a taxi and I would have turned up late
3. Get a taxi all the way there — pricey but would mean I wouldn’t be too late
4. Try and get the game delayed and continue to work on getting the gate open — it turns out the course was fully booked so the next slot would have been late afternoon plus my friends were already on their way
5. Sack off the game and go back to bed — that would have really let my friends down and I would miss out on a great catch up

Which option did I go for?

It was option 3 all the way.

I booked an Uber and when it turned up, I told the driver about my plight and he took it upon himself to get me to the game on time.

Which we did; I got there just as my friends were teeing off 😊

Winner, winner! Even better was that we had an excellent game in baking sunshine ☀ and I didn’t even play too badly ⛳.

Proof that we did play in glorious sunshine ☀

What were my key takeaways from this that you might want to apply when you face a problem?

1. Try to have pre-decisions already made— making decisions when you are stressed or running out of time will invariably be worse than making decisions when you have time and more information; that’s why I love pre-thinking through potential problems through pre-mortems and war gaming so that my decisions are already assessed and made
2. Make sure you have sufficient options to chose from — too few or too many options will mean you might not make the best decision (and might get even more stressed); it’s also easy to forget the option of not doing anything which could be a valid option
3. Be clear what are your assessment criteria — for me time and not letting my friends down were the main considerations (with money less so) but equally I didn’t want to spend unlimited money (hence no consideration of paying a neighbour for their car for example); this made assessing my options easier
4. Make a decision as quickly as you can — as with my situation this morning, the clock was ticking so best to make a decision and then get going with it [this is where pre-decisions come in handy]
5. Involve others in your problem — as shown by my Uber driver, sharing your problem can often lead to you getting help from unexpected sources
6. Try not to be stressed — this is easier said than done but this could have ruined my day as opposed to being a bit of adrenaline waking me up even more and setting up a fun adventure of a day

And that’s it!

A simple set of ideas to help you deal better with any problem that might beset you.

Let’s face it, you can’t avoid every problem but having a framework for dealing with them when they come up makes such a difference.

Bring on the next problem I say 👊

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ