How to Keep Going without a Solution

27 Jun How to Keep Going without a Solution

Even when you’re in the midst of a situation you can’t control or solve, there’s still a lot you can do to make progress and ultimately make your way to where you want to be: on the other side.

The next time you feel helpless, cornered, and stuck, try these strategies to help get things moving in the right direction.

Be decisive.

This is no time for self-doubt. When you’re already in a crappy or challenging situation, refuse to make things more difficult. Instead, make the best decisions you can  and stand by them. See them through. Refuse to waffle. You know and can do a lot. It may just not feel like it right now. Don’t be tricked. Decide, do, and move on.

Give yourself grace to change your mind.

The risk of not making the “right” decision might very well freeze you up. You may be stuck in a situation you can’t control, but you don’t have to be stuck with a bad decision, too. You get to change your mind. You can make your next decision informed by what you know and how you feel now. Mistakes aren’t liabilities or something to be ashamed of. They’re evidence of learning, living, and ultimately of making progress. Let this truth empower you.

Take the pressure off by making things as tolerable as possible.

The situation might be downright icky, and it might be entirely out of your control. But that doesn’t mean that everything is out of your control. Stop focusing on the situation or problem and instead shift the spotlight to how you can make things better while navigating out of it.

Divide and conquer to make tangible progress.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor do you have to solve a problem or address a challenge in one fell swoop. Make things easier and increase the probability of your success by breaking a challenge up into smaller, more manageable issues to address. A puzzle gets built one piece at a time and the problem you’re facing—no matter what it is, can get solved one bit at a time, too.