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Every Problem has Two Solutions Plus One Opportunity

Guest post by: Paul Tobey

Article Overview: No matter who you are and where you are in your career, finding yourself making mistakes is reality. How you deal with them determines how great the reward.

Every Problem has Two Solutions Plus One Opportunity

Imagine a full room of social media trainees anticipating their day. With laptops on the classroom style tables, their laptops are open and they are pumped to learn about everything it takes to make boost their sales with social media. As lead trainer, I'm buzzing with energy. I have an itinerary, a plan, and information that will rock their world.I'm excited for this group. It was so simple, all I had to do was deliver valuable material in a way they could understand it and get them an immediateresult. I made a key mistake that day. I couldn't believe it had taken me 2 minutes to see it and all day to fix it.


The interesting thing was that despite my resistance to this challenge, the actual answer came to me in a split second. I was training the social media wheel, when I recognized that most of our trainees were not familiar the simple task of getting online. My trainer heart was sinking. How will they get social media if theydon't know how to connect to the internet?I now recognize the challengeis that Ihave a mix of advanced learners and beginners and must please them both. Before I even got to deliver the juice of my social media secrets, I know I have probably lost3 hours of valuable training time, because my trainee'sproductivity simply couldn't be what I had expected. How often have you said to yourself, "How will I get through this?" I was feeling a bit stressed in that moment, but I was trained to quickly shift that bad energy and focus on what I do want.


What I wanted was a successful outcome for my trainees. I built a very successful training company over the past five years. However, it took me more than 30 years to become successful. Along the way there are many pitfalls. I invested in myself, learning from mentors in areas in my life that needed help. Both personal and professional development courses helped me master areas of my life that lead me to the next success. Each time we encounter a mistake, we learn something, regardless of the outcome. And over my training career, I learned that resisting a challenge just makes the challenge bigger. I quickly accepted my situation, and started looking for solutions. One mentor explained it like this. Every problem has two solutions plus one opportunity.


No matter who you are and where you are in your career, problems and challenges will be part of your journey. Most people dislikemaking mistakes. Especially painful ones. However, personal development and professional development courses have helped me master where to put my focus in difficult times. Where to focus is the key element.


I could have chosen to put my focus on the negativity.I had a choice in that moment. To blame others, to deny my accountibility, or to justify the results. However, if my focus stayed on the series of errors then I would have probably ended up giving tons of refunds. I've been trained to focus on what I do want, and not focus on what I don't want.


I decided to help the focus in the room, by asking the attendees to write down three reasons they wanted to master social media. When every body's objectives were crystal clear, this helped me and everyone in the room focus on the "why" they wanted to learn this. This lead them to having open minds, and allow their breakthrough moments happen. It also secret allowed me to regroup, and refocus the energy in the room.


This was a clear opportunity for our company to address these issues. We created video tutorials that are now a must before they apply to the social media course. If the students do not complete certain tasks before the course, they will be denied access. We hold ourselves highly accountable, but now recognize we must hold trainees accountable too, so everyone's experience is a great one.


It turns out, those tutorials are now being downloaded and shared, and have gone viral. It's all branding and marketing for us, so there was a hidden gem in this lesson. It forced us to create learning materials that we would have not otherwise done had we not made a mistake.


When you run into a challenge, choose to handle it with mastery. Look for the two solutions plus the one opportunity. Your choice to focus on what you do want withclear focus and good character will result in a win-win for everyone.

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Article Tags: development, opportunity, personal, problem, solution



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