The first step to effective problem-solving is to realize that a problem is nothing more than an unassembled solution. The more challenging problems typically require more intricate solutions, yet on occasion you might have the good fortune to resolve a complex and seemingly insoluble matter with stroke of genius.

When you approach a new challenge in life, take as much time as is available to assess its nature and the pieces laying about that might help you handle it successfully. Never despair at the onset. Never blame before you begin. Always pause for a moment of appreciation, especially when the strictures of circumstance press in on you.

Appreciation restores reason and expands vision like supplemental oxygen at high altitudes. It is the quality of expression that allows you to come to rest in the middle of even the most troubling situations. Appreciation places you squarely in the eye of the hurricane. If you find yourself at a loss for creative starting points, flustered by a sea of confusing detail, then you are wise to take pause and take heart by tapping into the currents of appreciation.

I listened to a Stanford University podcast called “Jefferson, Madison and the Problem of Slavery” yesterday and the panel of presenters (historians Jack Rakove, Caroline Winterer and Annette Gordon-Reed) discussed Jefferson and Madison’s approach to the problem of slavery in the newly minted Republic. As you can imagine, this was not an easy problem to work with, especially given its ties to the economy in what was still a fragile and unproven nation. Yet these men, over time, allowed for their vision to remain large, built consensus wherever possible and stayed the course.

Your ability to solve the problems you face is partly dependent on your ability to get outside of the problem. In Jefferson’s case, his travels to Paris opened his eyes to new thinking. (Maybe we all need to go to Paris more often?) Everyone I know has a different outlet that provides them normally unattainable perspective. For some it is prayer, for others, jogging, and I’ve noticed that many people find openings by playing their favorite musical instrument. In my own case I have found that activities that require intense focus or concentration often release logjams in other unrelated areas of life. Flying, riding, hawking, reading, writing, playing and exercising all provide the lift necessary to gain perspective on the most challenging issues I face.

Perhaps that points to another useful principle, namely, that unrelieved focus on a problem tends to compound it while releasing tension on a point is often the key to assembling the most efficient solution. Human beings tend to zero in on problems and focus almost fanatically on them. The war on cancer, for instance, comes to mind and I have to wonder if the idea that we need to eradicate something is obfuscating the more obvious solution, that is, that flow must be restored in other areas to prevent its manifestation as well as possibly to reverse its growth.

I once learned through the practice of Aikido that to focus on the point of constriction is to lose your leverage in the situation. When someone grabs you by the wrist, for instance, the last thing you should worry about and struggle against is the attacker’s grip on your wrist. This, ironically, is the first thing that we intuitively tend to focus on. The solution, from the standpoint of the principles of this martial art, is better found elsewhere, by focusing on the areas of movement and intervention that are available to you, the “open doors” so to speak.

Such an approach makes sense to me, though you must be careful to acknowledge the problem, lest you be accused of refusing to look at the tough issues by those around you. The habit of going straight to the point of greatest tension is so ingrained in most people that any other approach is initially viewed as suspect. The pieces necessary to successful resolution of any problem are always at hand, or at least within reach. To realize this, however, you must work to develop the sensitivity to recognize those pieces as they come into view and again, appreciation has a lot to do with this.

Problems are made intractable not by a lack of resources to resolve them, but by the human tendency to go at them with a troubled heart. The illuminating currents of inspiration and genius are refracted as they pass through a troubled heart much in the same way that light is broken into its component parts by a prism. When the heart is calm, where there is assurance that the solution is on its way, those currents pass through you with laser-like precision and they come, I might add, hand-tailored to meet the unique nature of what you face, no matter how ugly or difficult the situation may be.

You can be uncommonly effective in the living of life if you so choose. Settle for the typical approaches and you will have the typical experience. Those who hear these words, take them to heart and put them to practice will have the solvent necessary to remove that bumper-sticker from your vehicle that says “Life Sucks” and to dissolve that depressing and downward-spiralling feeling in your heart that says “Why me?”