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Problems, emergencies, and inconveniences. There’s no escaping them. The only thing we can do is prepare what we can, and when they do happen we must try to find the best things we can do in those situations.
It was around 10pm and I was live streaming digital art on Twitch.tv. I was busy coloring my new comic and talking to my new online viewers when, all of a sudden, the power went out. There was yet another power outage in our area. I wasn’t able to properly end my stream and say goodbye to my viewers, and I still haven’t started writing the article for this week (this one). I had a lot of work to do, and there was no way for me to do them.
Random problems like that happen all the time. There’s a power outage, the bus we’re riding is stuck in traffic, our internet and phone lines broke, or something else. There are also times when our income or salary gets delayed, or times when our car breaks down right before a very important client meeting at work.
What do we do when we face a problem or setback that’s stopping us from doing what we need to do?
How to Face Problems and Setbacks
You could, of course, just sit down and do nothing. You can sit down and do nothing but complain. Those choices, however, usually won’t do you much good. They simply waste time and effort that you COULD have used doing something more productive like, say, actually taking steps to solve the problem or something else.
What do we do during problematic or inconvenient situations?
For our blackout scenario: First off, we called the power company to inform them of the issue. There was a rumor that a past power outage didn’t get fixed for a day or two simply because nobody bothered to actually call the power company and tell them there’s a problem. Ever since we learned that, we started calling immediately to let the power companies know when there’s an issue.
So what next? Wait and do nothing? Complain? Nope. We decided to try and make the best out of the situation. Since it’s incredibly difficult to sleep due to the heat (no electric fans), most of my family left to check in at a cheap hotel. I, on the other hand, decided to walk to the nearest 24-hour coffee shop at midnight, plug in my laptop, and work all night. In fact, it’s 1am when I finished this paragraph in the draft, and I walked home at 3:30am.
On a previous power outage, I decided to read several old self-improvement books I had forgotten. They certainly gave a bit of inspiration AND some ideas for articles I want to write for you here. I also took out my old sketchpad to start drawing. That is some much needed practice, and it also gave me more content for social media marketing.
Remember, whenever you face a problem, think of a way to make the best of the situation.
“How can I fix this problem?”
“How can I be more productive in this situation?”
“What can I do to prevent this problem from happening again?”
(We can’t prevent blackouts, but we can prepare flashlights, powerbanks, and rechargeable electric fans.)
Just imagine some problem scenarios yourself.
While commuting to work your bus is stuck in a traffic jam. What do you do? Complain and do nothing? Listen to music on your phone? Call your boss to inform them you’re stuck? Plan for your future projects while you’re stuck there? If you need to call clients, call them from there instead of waiting until you get to the office?
Your workday is about to end and a massive storm struck. Now you’re stuck in the office and you can’t go home (this happened to me). What do you do? Complain with your coworkers and do nothing? Try to check if you can actually commute through the storm? Or maybe finish the rest of your work duties so you’ll be less stressed for the rest of the week?
You got fired from your job, what do you do? Complain and do nothing? Write hateful comments online and spread bad rumors against your former employers? Or take this as an opportunity to take a much needed multi-day vacation while job hunting? Maybe you can take it as a time to rest, review your life, and plan for your future? Maybe you can actually start that business you’ve been planning all this time.
Problems are an inevitable part of life. The main difference between problems evolving into disasters or problems just being inconveniences will lie on how we react to it.
We can let even minor problems destroy us. We can work to solve problems… or we can turn problems into opportunities. Remember that the next time you’re faced with a problem.