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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>From: L. Michael Hall<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>2026 Neurons #10<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>March 2, 2026</span></font></b><font size=3><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>Problem Solving Expertise #11</span></font></i><font size=3><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=5 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:20.0pt;font-weight:bold'>THRIVING ON PROBLEMS</span></font><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Now talk about a wild and crazy idea! <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Thriving on problems?! </span></i>Really? Well, yes, that’s the vision of developing expertise in problem-solving. When you get really good at <i><span style='font-style:italic'>solving</span></i> problems, you will naturally delight in problems. You will take them on as the grist for your mill. You know that within them is gold to mine. This means that problems do <i><span style='font-style:italic'>not </span></i>have to stop you or depress you, once you turn your thinking around and enhance your skill level, you can actually thrive in their presence. How about that?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To turn around your thinking, whenever you hear the world ‘problem,’ think <i><span style='font-style:italic'>puzzle. </span></i>And don’t you love puzzles? Crossword puzzles, language riddles, mystery puzzles, puzzles which are set up in games, on the internet, on TV game shows. Who has a problem with a puzzle? Hardly anyone. Puzzles tease the mind; they are playful. They are fun. They start by mystifying us. At first we are confused, unsure, perplexed, bewildered, but as we then ponder the puzzle and ‘puzzle it out,’ we figure it out which becomes an ecstatic moment of delight.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>Here’s my reframe: Problems are puzzles for my mind.</span></font></i><font size=3><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> As such problems can activate your mind and your creativity. With problems, you can unleash potentials you didn’t even know you had, and develop creative thinking skills that can lead to innovative breakthroughs. <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>But, </span></b>and this is a big <i><span style='font-style:italic'>but, </span></i>all this requires that you adopt a robust attitude and develop your problem-solving skills. Only then can you move into becoming an effective and creative problem-solver.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Now the people who <i><span style='font-style:italic'>thrive on problems</span></i> tend to be the entrepreneurs of the future. They see a problem—something that gets in the way or something that’s missing which is needed—and they set about to solve the problem. These are the people who actually search for problems to solve and embrace the problems they find. They know that ‘the bigger the problem, the more the money’ (another great reframe). That’s because <i><span style='font-style:italic'>people will pay for solutions to their problems.</span></i> And that in a few words is the secret for wealth creation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To <i><span style='font-style:italic'>thrive on problems, </span></i>slow yourself down when you come upon a problem. Take time to precisely define the problem. Like any puzzle, most problems arrive at our door step vague, ambiguous, and messy. That’s why we have to take time to clean up the ‘problem’ linguistically and conceptually. To rashly jump in and try to solve the problem typically leads you to solving the wrong problem or inadequately solving it. Those who thrive on problems know that “the presenting problem” is usually not the real problem. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The danger of rushing into problem-solving is that when you solve a symptom rather than the problem, the problem will return. That’s because you never got to the actual problem, just symptoms and expressions of it. You didn’t go deep enough into <i><span style='font-style:italic'>the thinking of the core construct.</span></i> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Those who thrive on problems have another secret, they fully embrace the problem by entering into it to understand it from the inside–out. Abraham Maslow, who was recognized as an authority on creativity in the 1950s and 60s, described this.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>“The best way to view a present problem is to give it all you’ve got, to study it, and its nature, to perceive <i><span style='font-style:italic'>within</span></i> it the intrinsic interrelationships, to discover (rather than to invent) the answer to the problem within the problem itself.” (p. 61)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That last line is a jewel: “discover the answer to the problem within the problem itself.” How about that? What if by entering into the problem, clearly defining it, and understanding its internal structures implies and reveals <i><span style='font-style:italic'>the solution? </span></i>If so, then like a good puzzle, there’s this paradox to problem-solving, you first have to embrace the problem in order to make the meta probe journey into the center of the meanings that encode the problem. That is, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>the solution is inside of the problem.</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That explains one of the key questions we use in the problem-solving process, “If this statement described the problem and you turn it into a question—a question that elicits an answer that solves the problem, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>what is the question?</span></i> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><b><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>[Neuro-Semantics News: The ISNS Wisdoms, March 21 will be on Problem-Solving Thinking. ]<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=5 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:20.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><font size=3 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><br clear=all style='page-break-before:always'></span></font><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'>L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'>738 Beaver Lodge<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'><a href="http://www.neurosemantics.com"><font color=blue><span style='color:blue'>www.neurosemantics.com</span></font></a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-weight:bold'>To subscribe or unsubscribe to Neurons, send request to <a href="mailto:meta@acsol.net"><font color=blue><span style='color:blue'>meta@acsol.net</span></font></a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Making smart decisions is not easy--- many, many cognitive biases <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>work against us and it is far too easy to default to pseudo-decisions:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>emotions, gut feelings, intuitions, circumstances, others. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Executive Decisions (2021) </span></font></b>offers a way to decide intelligently and wisely.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><img border=0 width=294 height=205 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01DCA993.A68960E0" alt="130969 Neuro Semantics Executive Decisions Book Cover"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Calibri><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p></div></body></html>